Comitas torquayensis

Comitas torquayensis Temporal range: late Oligocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype from Auckland War Memorial Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Family:	Pseudomelatomidae
Genus:	Comitas
Species:	†C. torquayensis
Binomial name
†Comitas torquayensis Powell, 1944

Comitas torquayensis is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Pseudomelatomidae. ^[1] Fossils of the species date to the late Oligocene, and occurs in the strata of the Port Phillip Basin of Victoria, Australia.

Description

Reverse view of holotype

In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:

Species very similar in general facies to wynyardensis , but with heavier axials and more numerous primary spirals. Axials bluntly rounded, 10 per whorl, extending half way across shoulder, but rapidly fading out on base. Primary spiral cords 4-5 on spire whorls, with a further 3 on body-whorl, at top of aperture. Shoulder with 10 fine spiral threads, two of which are on a narrow subsutural fold. Below the lowest primary spiral on the body-whorl the sculpture is abruptly reduced in strength and consists of about 34 fine linear-spaced threads. The primary spirals are slightly thickened where they cross the axials. ^[2]

The holotype of the species measures 21 mm (0.83 in) in height and 7.8 mm (0.31 in) in diameter. ^[2] It can be distinguished from other Australian fossil Comitas species due to the number of axial ribs, protoconch details and relative size. ^[3]

Taxonomy

The species was first described by A.W.B. Powell in 1944. ^[2] The holotype was collected from Torquay, Victoria, ^{[4] : 261} at an unknown date prior to 1944, and is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum. ^{[5] [6]}

Distribution

This extinct marine species dates to the late Oligocene, and occurs in the strata of the Port Phillip Basin of Victoria, Australia, from the Jan Juc Formation. ^{[5] [7]}

References

1. Comitas torquayensis A. W. B. Powell, 1944 † . 17 November 2025. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species .
2. Powell, A. W. B. (1944). "The Australian Tertiary Mollusca of the Family Turridae". Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum . 3: 3–68. ISSN   0067-0464. JSTOR   42905993. Wikidata   Q58676624.
3. Long, D. C. (1981). "Late Eocene and Early Oligocene Turridae (Gastropoda: Prosobranchiata) of the Brown's Creek and Glen Aire Clays, Victoria, Australia" (PDF). Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria. 42 (1): 15–55. doi:10.24199/J.MMV.1981.42.03. ISSN   0083-5986. Wikidata   Q56195002.
4. Powell, A. W. B. (9 September 1969). "The family Turridae in the Indo-Pacific. Part 2. The subfamily Turriculinae". Indo-Pacific mollusca. 2 (10): 215–416. ISSN   0073-7240. Wikidata   Q136806872.
5. Blom, Wilma M. (2025). "Annotated Catalogue of Fossil and Extant Molluscan Types in the Auckland War Memorial Museum". Bulletin of the Auckland Museum . 22. doi:10.32912/BULLETIN/22. ISSN   1176-3213. Wikidata   Q135397912.
6. "Comitas torquayensis". Collections Online. Auckland War Memorial Museum . Retrieved 17 November 2025.
7. Darragh, Thomas A. (August 2024). "A checklist of Australian marine Cenozoic Mollusca". Memoirs of Museum Victoria . 83: 37–206. doi:10.24199/J.MMV.2024.83.02. ISSN   1447-2546. Wikidata   Q136396722.