Mauidrillia trispiralis

Mauidrillia trispiralis
Temporal range:
Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Family: Horaiclavidae
Genus: Mauidrillia
Species:
M. trispiralis
Binomial name
Mauidrillia trispiralis

Mauidrillia trispiralis is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Horaiclavidae.[1] Fossils of the species date to the middle Miocene strata of the Otway Basin of Victoria, Australia.

Description

In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:

Shell very slender, sculptured with relatively few strong spirals which are rendered nodulose at the axial intersections. Subsutural fold strong, 2 to 3 threads on shoulder ; peripheral carina and two cords below it, all equally strong. About 19 cords on body-whorl from periphery to the anterior end. The holotype exhibits abnormal sculpture on the front of the body-whorl, due to a shell injury and its subsequent repair. Axials 13 per whorl, producing nodulation where they cross the three main spirals. Body-whorl crossed by numerous axial riblets which render the spirals weakly crenulate. The absence of strong axial nodulation on the body-whorl may be due to the shell injury already mentioned.[2]

The holotype of the species measures 9.9 mm (0.39 in) in height and 3.5 mm (0.14 in) in diameter.[2]

Taxonomy

The species was first described by A.W.B. Powell in 1944.[2] The holotype was collected from the Gellibrand River in Victoria, Australia at an unknown date prior to 1945, and is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[3][4] In 1981, D. C. Long theorised that the late Eocene species M. aldingensis was ancestral to M. torquayensis.[5]

Distribution

This extinct marine species occurs in middle Miocene strata of the Otway Basin of Victoria, including the Gellibrand Formation.[3][6]

References

  1. ^ Mauidrillia trispiralis A. W. B. Powell, 1944 †. 8 December 2025. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "Mauidrillia trispiralis". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 8 December 2025.
  5. ^ Long, D. C. (1981). "Late Eocene and Early Oligocene Turridae (Gastropoda: Prosobranchiata) of the Brown's Creek and Glen Aire Clays, Victoria, Australia" (PDF). Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria. 42 (1): 15–55. doi:10.24199/J.MMV.1981.42.03. ISSN 0083-5986. Wikidata Q56195002.
  6. ^ 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.