Thatcheria mirabilis

Thatcheria mirabilis, common name the Japanese wonder shell or Miraculous thatcheria is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Raphitomidae.[1]

Thatcheria mirabilis
Shell of Thatcheria mirabilis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Superfamily: Conoidea
Family: Raphitomidae
Genus: Thatcheria
Species:
T. mirabilis
Binomial name
Thatcheria mirabilis
Angas, 1877

Description

The length of the shell varies between 70 mm and 120 mm.

(Original description) The solid shell is angularly pyriform and yellowish white. The spire is elevated and acuminate towards the apex. It contains 8 whorls, flattened, and slightly excavated above, strongly and prominently keeled at the periphery, and sloping inwards below. Above the keels they are finely arcuately striate, below irregularly more or less crenately concentrically ridged . The aperture is triangularly subquadrate, pure white, and shining within. The white columella is smooth, slightly arcuate above, nearly straight below. The outer lip shows a broad excavated sinus extending from its juncture with the body whorl to the extremity of the last keel. Below the keel, which is very prominent, the lip is simple and arcuate. [2]

Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Indo-West Pacific and also off Japan and Western Australia; also as fossils, range: Upper Miocene to Recent (mainly Pliocene)

References
  1. Thatcheria mirabilis Angas, 1877. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 5 April 2010.
  2. Angas G.F. (1877). Descriptions of a new genus of gasteropodous Mollusca from Japan, and of a new species of Bullia from Kurachi. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. (1877): 529-530, pl. 54
  • Kuroda, T. & Habe, T. 1954. New genera of Japanese marine gastropods. Venus 18(2): 84-97, text figs 1-20
  • Powell, A.W.B. 1966. The molluscan families Speightiidae and Turridae, an evaluation of the valid taxa, both Recent and fossil, with list of characteristic species. Bulletin of the Auckland Institute and Museum. Auckland, New Zealand 5: 1–184, pls 1–23
  • Powell, A.W.B. 1968. The turrid shellfish of Australian waters. Australian Natural History 1 16: 1–6
  • Rosenberg, G. 1992. Encyclopedia of Seashells. Dorset: New York. 224 pp.
  • Wilson, B. 1994. Australian marine shells. Prosobranch gastropods. Kallaroo, WA : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 2 370 pp.
  • Tucker, J.K. (2004). "Catalog of recent and fossil turrids (Mollusca: Gastropoda)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 682: 1–1295.
  • Gastropods.com: Thatcheria mirabilis
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