Timbellus atlantideus

Timbellus atlantideus
Shell of Timbellus atlantideus (holotype at MNHN, Paris)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Neogastropoda
Family: Muricidae
Genus: Timbellus
Species:
T. atlantideus
Binomial name
Timbellus atlantideus
(Bouchet & Warén, 1985)
Synonyms

Pterynotus atlantideus Bouchet & Warén, 1985 (basionym)

Timbellus atlantideus is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.

Description

The size of an adult shell varies between 18 mm and 30 mm.

Shell solid and fusiform, with a small white protoconch and tan adult whorls with faint brownish blotches. The adult sculpture has three varices and three intervarical nodes per whorl, with distinct spinose spiral cords and faint axial ridges. Aperture is elliptical, with seven denticules on the outer lip.

T. atlantideus is most similar to T. leucas, from which it differs in its smaller protoconch, prominent intervarical nodes, and tan color.

Distribution

This species is found in the Atlantic Ocean along the Azores, as well as on the Great Meteor Seamount.

Ecology

T. atlantideus is suspected by Hoffmann et al. (2020) to be a potential predator of Basilissopsis athenae, a deep-water gastropod of the family Seguenziidae which also occurs in the South Azorean Seamount Chain.

References

  1. ↑ Bouchet P. & Warén A. (1985). Revision of the Northeast Atlantic bathyal and abyssal Neogastropoda excluding Turridae (Mollusca, Gastropoda). Bollettino Malacologico Suppl. 1: 121–296. World Register of Marine Species, Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  2. 1 2 Timbellus atlantideus (Bouchet & Warén, 1985). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 10 April 2011.
  3. 1 2 Bouchet, Philippe, Warén, Anders (1985). "Revision of the northeast Atlantic bathyal and abyssal Neogastropoda excluding Turridae (Mollusca, Gastropoda)". Bollettino malacologico. Supplemento 1. Unione malacologica italiana: 123--296.
  4. ↑ Hoffman, Leon; Gofas, Serge; Freiwald, André (2 January 2020). "New and little-known Seguenziidae (Vetigastropoda, Gastropoda) from the South Azorean Seamount Chain". Iberus. doi:10.5281/ZENODO.4824367.