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Wikipedia / Turritellidae

Turritellidae, with the common name tower shells or tower snails, is a taxonomic family of small- to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the Sorbeoconcha clade.

They are filter feeders; this method of feeding is somewhat unusual among gastropod mollusks, but is very common in bivalves.

Shell description

The shells of turritellid species have whorls that are more convex and their apertures being more circular than it is in the auger shells, which are similarly high-spired. The columella is curved and the thin operculum has many horns.

Anatomy of the soft parts

These snails burrow into mud or sand, with their feet being relatively small.

Taxonomy

The following genera are recognised in the family Turritellidae:

  1. †Omalaxinae

  2. †Omalaxis Deshayes, 1832

  3. Orectospirinae

  4. Orectospira Dall, 1925

  5. Pareorinae

  6. †Batillona Finlay, 1927

  7. †Eligmostoma Cossmann, 1888

  8. Mesalia Gray, 1847

  9. Pareora Marwick, 1931

  10. †Sigmesalia H. J. Finlay & Marwick, 1937

  11. Protominae

  12. †Allmonia Harzhauser & Landau, 2019

  13. Protoma Baird, 1870

  14. Turritellinae

  15. Archimediella

  16. Armatus

  17. †Asiella

  18. Banzarecolpus

  19. Broderiptella

  20. Callostracum

  21. †Calvertitella

  22. Caviturritella

  23. †Colposigma

  24. Colpospira

  25. †Costacolpus

  26. †Cristispira

  27. Gazameda

  28. Haustator

  29. Helminthia

  30. Incatella

  31. †Kapalmerella

  32. Maoricolpus

  33. †Mariacolpus

  34. †Nairiella

  35. Neohaustator

  36. †Nodosella

  37. †Oligodia

  38. †Peyrotia

  39. †Ptychidia

  40. †Roamerella

  41. †Spirocolpus

  42. Stiracolpus

  43. †Tachyrhinchella

  44. Tachyrhynchus

  45. Torcula

  46. †Torquesia

  47. †Torquesiella

  48. Tropicolpus

  49. Turritella - the type genus of the family

  50. Turritellinella

  51. Vermicularia

  52. †Viennella

  53. Zeacolpus

  54. Other

  55. †Arcotia Stoliczka, 1867

  56. †Leptocolpus H. J. Finlay & Marwick, 1937

Palaeontological locations

  • The Turritellenplatte of Ermingen ("Erminger Turritellenplatte" near Ulm, Germany) is situated in the northern part of the North Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB) and is of interest for its abundance of Turritella turris gastropod shells within sedimentary depositss. The fauna of the gastropod-rich sandstone reflects mainly towards near-coastal and shallow marine conditions. Petrographical and palaeontological data allow for a correlation with this area and the Burdigalian age (Lower Miocene epoch). Based on the Sr-isotope composition of shark teeth in the area, the age of the area is about 18,5 Ma.

References

Further reading

  • Mayr H. (1985). A Guide to Fossils. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. (English translation 1992).

  • Powell A. W. B. (1979). New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand, .

  • Kiel S. (2003) New taxonomic data for the gastropod fauna of the Umzamba Formation (Santonian–Campanian, South Africa); Cretaceous Research 24 (2003) 449–475