Inquisitor scabriculus
| Inquisitor scabriculus Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
| Order: | Neogastropoda |
| Family: | Pseudomelatomidae |
| Genus: | Inquisitor |
| Species: | †I. scabriculus
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Inquisitor scabriculus (A. W. B. Powell, 1944)
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Inquisitor scabriculus is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc, in the family Pseudomelatomidae.[1] Fossils of the species date to either the late Miocene or early Pliocene strata of the Gippsland Basin of Victoria, Australia.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
Shell rather large. Axial and spiral sculpture both well developed, subsutural fold weak to obsolescent. Periphery above middle, rounded, shoulder deeply concave. Axials broadly rounded, 14 per whorl, subobsolete over base, crossed by coarse linear-spaced spiral cords, 6-8 on spire-whorls and about 21 on body-whorl and base. The concave shoulder bears indistinct spiral threads.[2]
The holotype of the species measures 21 mm (0.83 in) in length and has a diameter of 7.6 mm (0.30 in).[2]
Taxonomy
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1944 as Pseudoinquisitor scabriculus.[2] Powell recombined the species as Inquisitor scabriculus in 1966,[3] a move that malacologist Thomas A. Darragh agreed with in 1970.[4] The holotype was collected from the Gippsland Lakes, Victoria, Australia at an unknown date prior to 1937 as a part of the Finlay Collection, and is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[5][6]
Distribution
This extinct marine species occurs in strata of the Gippsland Basin of Victoria, Australia, including the Jemmys Point Formation, and likely dates to the late Miocene or early Pliocene.[5][7]
References
- ^ a b Inquisitor scabriculus (A. W. B. Powell, 1944) †. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 16 December 2025.
- ^ a b c Powell, A. W. B. (1944). "The Australian Tertiary Mollusca of the Family Turridae". Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 3: 3–68. ISSN 0067-0464. JSTOR 42905993. Wikidata Q58676624. This article incorporates text from this source, which is under a CC BY 4.0 license.
- ^ Powell, A. W. B. (1 November 1966). "The molluscan families Speightiidae and Turridae: an evaluation of the valid taxa, both recent and fossil, with lists of characteristic species". Bulletin of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 5. Auckland Institute and Museum. ISSN 0067-0456. LCCN 67091267. OCLC 956602. Wikidata Q115098397.
- ^ Darragh, Thomas A. (1970). "Catalogue of Australian Tertiary Mollusca (except chitons)" (PDF). Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria. 31: 125–212. doi:10.24199/J.MMV.1970.31.14. ISSN 0083-5986. Wikidata Q56194898.
- ^ a b Blom, Wilma M. (2025). "Annotated Catalogue of Fossil and Extant Molluscan Types in the Auckland War Memorial Museum". Bulletin of the Auckland Museum. 22. doi:10.32912/BULLETIN/22. ISSN 1176-3213. OCLC 1550165130. Wikidata Q135397912.
- ^ "Inquisitor scabriculus". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 16 December 2025.
- ^ Darragh, Thomas A. (August 2024). "A checklist of Australian marine Cenozoic Mollusca". Memoirs of Museum Victoria. 83: 37–206. doi:10.24199/J.MMV.2024.83.02. ISSN 1447-2546. Wikidata Q136396722.