Echinoturris
Echinoturris is a genus of minute gastropod molluscs belonging to the superfamily Conoidea, currently unassigned to a family. The genus is a monotypic fossil taxon, currently known to only have one member, Echinoturris finlayi. Fossils of the species date to early Miocene strata of the west coast of the Auckland Region, New Zealand.
Description
Members of the genus have a blunt, smooth, cylindrical-sided, round-topped protoconch of two whorls, which ends with a few thin, closely-spaced axials, a carina with a deep V-shaped sinus in the upper section, and a sparse bicarinate series of prickly nodules. The genus is small in size, and can be differentiate from the genera Xenuroturris, Typhlomangelia and Cinguliturris due to having a moderately long canal and bicarinate-spinose sculpture.The original description for Echinoturris finlayi is as follows:
The holotype of the species measures in length and has a diameter of.
Taxonomy
A. W. B. Powell first described the species as in 1935, provisionally in the genus Turris on the advice of H. J. Finlay, who had been preparing a more comprehensive monograph focused on the Turridae family. Having difficulty placing the species in any known genus, Powell established the genus Echinoturris in 1942. Echinoturris finlayi is the currently accepted name of the species. The holotype was collected by A. W. B. Powell at an unknown date prior to 1935 from between Powell Bay and Bartrum Bay, approximately south of Muriwai, Auckland Region, and is held in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum.The genus was placed in the family Turridae by Powell in 1944, the subfamily Turrinae by Powell in 1966, and in the order Neogastropoda by Jack Sepkoski posthumously in 2002. While P. A. Maxwell retained the genus' position in Turrinae in 2009, currently the genus is unassigned to a family or subfamily within the superfamily Conoidea.