Astralium semicostatum

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Astralium semicostatum
Astralium semicostatum 001.jpg
Drawing with two views of a shell of Astralium semicostatum
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Clade: Vetigastropoda
Order: Trochida
Superfamily: Trochoidea
Family: Turbinidae
Genus: Astralium
Species:
A. semicostatum
Binomial name
Astralium semicostatum
(P. Fischer, 1875)
Synonyms [1]
  • Astraea semicostata(Kiener, 1850)
  • Astralium semicostatum(P. Fischer, 1875)
  • Calcar semicostatumP. Fischer, 1875
  • Trochus semicostatusKiener, 1850 (original combination)
  • Trochus stellatusPhilippi
  • Trochus stellatusReeve

Astralium semicostatum, common name the half-ribbed star shell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails. [1] [2]

In biology, a species ( ) is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. While these definitions may seem adequate, when looked at more closely they represent problematic species concepts. For example, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, and in a ring species. Also, among organisms that reproduce only asexually, the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies.

Sea snail common name for snails that normally live in saltwater

Sea snail is a common name for snails that normally live in salt water, in other words marine gastropods. The taxonomic class Gastropoda also includes snails that live in other habitats, such as land snails and freshwater snails. Many species of sea snails are edible and exploited as food sources by humans.

Family is one of the eight major hierarcical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy; it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as being the "walnut family".

Contents

Description

The size of the shell varies between 25 mm and 40 mm. The solid, imperforate shell has an elevated-conic shape. Its color pattern is olive-brown or cinereous. The apex is acute. The 6-7 whorls are, sharply carinated. Their upper surface is concave, longitudinally more or less finely and irregularly plicate below the sutures; coarsely plicate on the lower half of the whorls. The folds terminate in short nodes at the periphery, twelve to sixteen in number on the body whorl, and also scalloping the sutures. The base of the shell is flat, somewhat depressed around the middle, finely concentrically lirate and radiately striate. The lirae number about eight to sixteen. The suboval aperture is very oblique, white within, slightly channelled at the carina, but scarcely angulate. The short columella is bluish, rosy or white, curved, and dentate below. The base of the aperture is horizontal, sometimes with a submarginal row of minute tubercles within.

In anatomy, an apex is part of the shell of a mollusk. The apex is the pointed tip of the shell of a gastropod, scaphopod, or cephalopod.

Whorl (mollusc)

A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in of numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including Nautilus, Spirula and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the ammonites.

Body whorl

The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk.

In some specimens the peripheral spines are rather long and directed outward. The lirae of the base are sometimes coarser than the figures indicate. And in fully matured individuals the outer ones become obsolete. [3]

Distribution

The marine species occurs off Southeast Asia.

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References

  1. 1 2 Bouchet, P. (2012). Astralium semicostatum (P. Fischer, 1875). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=581755 on 2012-09-01
  2. 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.
  3. G.W. Tryon (1888), Manual of Conchology X; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia