Boreotrophon alaskanus

Boreotrophon alaskanus
Gastropod shell of Boreotrophon alaskanus with operculum, 40.5 mm in length, trawled in 200 fathoms off the Cape of Erimo, Hokkaido Island, Japan.
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Muricidae
Genus:	Boreotrophon
Species:	B. alaskanus
Binomial name
Boreotrophon alaskanus (Dall, 1902)
Synonyms [1]
Trophon alaskanusDall, 1902 Boreotrophon alborostratusTaki, 1938 Neptunea ithitomaDall, 1919

Boreotrophon alaskanus ^{[1] [2]} is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.

Description

The shell is bone to creamy white in color with an elevated spire, a very distinct suture, and a strongly curved, long, slender siphonal canal. The shell has two nuclear whorls (which are typically eroded) and five subsequent whorls. The whorls are rounded and bear 8 to 10 narrow varices which are prominent at the shoulder, where they rise into long blunt spines that curve towards the axis of the shell. The aperture is subovate, and the operculum is thin and light brown. Length 14 to 45 mm. ^{[2] [3]}

Distribution

This snail occurs in the Bering Sea north of Unalaska to northern Honshu, Japan. ^{[3] [4]}

References

1. Boreotrophon alaskanus Dall, 1902 . Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species  on 24 April 2010.
2. Proceedings of United States National Museum, 24:546, W.H. Dall, 1902
3. The Marine Shells of the West Coast of North America, Volume II Part II (1927), by Ida Shepard Oldroyd, Stanford University Press, p. 34
4. Hasegawa K. (2009) Upper bathyal gastropods of the Pacific coast of northern Honshu, Japan, chiefly collected by R/V Wakataka-maru. In: T. Fujita (ed.), Deep-sea fauna and pollutants off Pacific coast of northern Japan. National Museum of Nature and Science Monographs 39: 225–383.