Agnewia kempae
Agnewia kempae is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc, in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails. Fossils of the species date to the Late Pleistocene, and occur in the strata of Te Piki in the eastern Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
Description
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:The holotype of the species measures in height and in diameter. The species has less prominent axials and more widely spaced and sharply raised spirals relative to Agnewia tritoniformis, and has a rounded, protruding nodule on the outer lip similar in appearance to a "stromboid notch", something not found in A. tritoniformis.
The species has short, blunt labral teeth that form at the end of its spinal chord, and is small and have a moderately elongated shell relative to other members of Muricidae. Fossils are coloured buff-brown.
Ecology
The species lived in New Zealand at a time when the climate was much warmer than the current day.Taxonomy
The species was first described by A.W.B. Powell in 1934, who named the species after the Dory Kemp, wife of Alfred Ernest Kemp, who lived at Cape Runaway. The holotype was collected by Powell in August 1933 from east of Cape Runaway in the Bay of Plenty Region, and is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.The species likely represents a population of Agnewia tritoniformis which spread from Australia, then becoming genetically isolated and evolving into a distinct species.