| Latouchella Temporal range: Tommotian | |
|---|---|
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| A reconstruction of Latouchella costata | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | † Helcionelloida |
| Order: | † Helcionelliformes |
| Family: | † Coreospiridae |
| Genus: | † Latouchella Cobbold, 1921 |
| Type species | |
| † Latouchella costata Cobbold, 1921 | |
| Species | |
See text. | |
| Synonyms | |
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Latouchella is an extinct genus of marine invertebrate animal, that is considered to be a mollusk and which may be a sea snail, a gastropod. It is a helcionellid from the Tommotian epoch of what is now Siberia. Its tightly coiled, spiral shell contains a number of low "walls" running up the front surface of the interior; these would have directed water currents within its shell. Between these walls are a series of furrows, parallel to the shell's aperture, giving casts of the internal structure the appearance of a railway line, with sleepers (created by furrows) tying together paired rails that run towards the apex of the shell. [1]
It was named by Edgar Sterling Cobbold in 1921 for the Rev. William Martin Digues La Touche of Wistanstow, Shropshire, England, in whose collection it was found. [2]
This genus had a curved, segmented shell, and it is often reconstructed as a snail-like creature.
The taxonomy of the genus Latouchella was originally like this[ citation needed ]: class Helcionelloida, order Helcionellida, superfamily Helcionelloidea, family Helcionellidae.
The taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005 [3] categorizes Latouchella in the family Coreospiridae in the superfamily Scenelloidea within the Paleozoic molluscs of uncertain systematic position.
Latouchella was a type genus in the family Latouchellidae Golikov & Starobogatov, 1989, however Latouchellidae is a synonym of Coreospiridae. [3]
The 2006–2007 taxonomy of the genus Latouchella is like this[ citation needed ]: class Helcionelloida, subclass Archaeobranchia, order Helcionelliformes, superfamily Helcionelloidea, family Coreospiridae.
Species in the genus Latouchella include: