Astralium rotularium

Astralium rotularium
Shell of Astralium rotularium (specimen in the Natural History Museum, Rotterdam)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Vetigastropoda
Order:	Trochida
Superfamily:	Trochoidea
Family:	Turbinidae
Genus:	Astralium
Species:	A. rotularium
Binomial name
Astralium rotularium (Lamarck, 1822) [1]
Synonyms [2]
Trochus rotulariusLamarck, 1822

Astralium rotularium, common name the rotary star shell or the knob star shell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails. ^{[2] [3]}

Description

The size of the shell varies between 25 mm and 50 mm. The white, subdepressed, imperforate shell has a conoid shape. The spire is subacute. The six whorls are obliquely finely costulate with numerous prominent imbricating laterally compressed plicae at the sutures. The body whorl is carinated with plicate-nodose carina. The base of the shell is convex, squamosely concentrically lirate. The white columella is arcuate, not dentate. The aperture is oblique. ^[4]

Distribution

This marine species is endemic to Australia and occurs off the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia.

References

1. Lamarck, J.B.P.A. de M. 1822. Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertèbres. Suite des Gastéropodes. Paris : J.B. Lamarck Vol. 6(2) 232 pp.
2. Astralium rotularium (Lamarck, 1822) . 20 November 2025. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species .
3. Alf A. & Kreipl K. (2011) The family Turbinidae. Subfamilies Turbininae Rafinesque, 1815 and Prisogasterinae Hickman & McLean, 1990. In: G.T. Poppe & K. Groh (eds), A Conchological Iconography. Hackenheim: Conchbooks. pp. 1-82, pls 104-245.
4. G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

• Wilson, B.R. & Gillett, K. 1971. Australian Shells: illustrating and describing 600 species of marine gastropods found in Australian waters. Sydney : Reed Books 168 pp
• Coleman, N. 1975. What Shell is That? Sydney : Lansdowne Press 298 pp.
• Wilson, B. 1993. Australian Marine Shells. Prosobranch Gastropods. Kallaroo, Western Australia : Odyssey Publishing Vol. 1 408 pp.