New species of Neritidae (Neritimorpha) from the Ypresian and Bartonian of the Paris and Basse-Loire Basins, France
Author
Symonds, Malcolm Francis
Author
Pacaud, Jean-Michel
text
Zootaxa
2010
2606
55
68
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.197721
7fbbbf17-731f-4905-a25b-cea2c544bf38
1175-5326
197721
Genus
Neritodryas
Martens, 1869
Type
species.
By subsequent designation,
Baker
(1923: 153)
:
Nerita cornea
Linné 1758
. Recent, freshwater, Indopacific.
Diagnosis.
Moderately large, up to
40 mm
in height, spire blunt, labial area smooth, a blunt tooth below, often with small teeth on septum edge, operculum ribbed. (Amended after
Keen 1960
).
Remarks.
Martens (1869)
, when erecting
Neritodryas
, placed within it the two Recent species
N. cornea
(
Linné, 1758
)
and
N. dubia
(
Gmelin, 1791
)
. Subsequently (
Martens 1879
) he covered
Neritodryas
in greater detail and included two additional species
N. chimmoi
(
Reeve, 1856
)
and
N. subsulcata
(
Sowerby, 1836
)
. He described the columellar edge of
Neritodryas
as being without teeth but specimens of all four of these species commonly have small columellar teeth (pers. obs.). Accordingly Marten’s diagnosis is incorrect in this respect and we have amended the above diagnosis to include a reference to small teeth on the septum edge. All the Recent species have spiral ridges on the teleoconch except for
N. dubia
,
which is smooth, apart from fine collabral growth lines. The genus is unusual within
Neritidae
in that the Recent species live mainly on trees and bushes beside freshwater and in mangrove swamps (
Cowie & Smith 2000
). The ontogeny of
Neritodryas
is not fully known.
Kano (2006)
considered that the considerable intraspecific variation in the size of the opercular
nucleus
might suggest nonplanktotrophic development.
Holthuis (1995)
took the view that
Neritodryas
species have short-lived, possibly non-feeding (lecithotrophic) pelagic larvae as, firstly, the protoconch size is intermediate between planktotrophic veligers of
Neritina
and
Clithon
and those of benthic
Fluvinerita
and, secondly, their geographic distribution is extensive enough to imply pelagic larvae even though more limited than ranges of typical
Neritina
and
Clithon
.
Neritodryas guillioui
sp. nov
. (
Figs 4–5
)
Type
material.
Holotype
MNHN
A31490 (Faullummel coll.,
Fig. 4
a–c); one
paratype
MNHN
A31491 (Pacaud leg.,
Fig. 5
a–c), 4
paratypes
MNHN
A32900 (Pacaud leg.) 5
paratypes
MNHN
A31492 (Faullummel coll.). All from
type
locality.
Stratum typicum.
Early Eocene, Ypresian (Sparnacian), “Sands of Pourcy”.
FIGURES 5–8. 5.
Neritodryas guillioui
sp. nov.
, paratype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 14.5 mm, width 15 mm. Ypresian, Pourcy, Marne, France. MNHN A31491 (Faullummel coll.).
6.
Neritodryas globosa
(J. de C. Sowerby, 1823), neotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 18.2 mm, width 13.8 mm. Bartonian, Highcliff, Hampshire, U.K. NHM GG 22558 (A. G. Davis coll.).
7.
Neritodryas dutemplei
(Deshayes, 1864)
, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 9 mm, width 9.1 mm. Ypresian, Pourcy, Marne, France. MNHN
A31493
(Faullummel coll.).
8.
Cuisenerita tuberosa
sp. nov.
, holotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. & d. side views. Length 14 mm, width 12.5 mm., Ypresian, Trosly-Breuil, Oise, France. NHM PI TG 26450 (S. Tracey coll.).
Locus typicus.
Pourcy, Marne,
France
. 49˚09ˏ33˝ N 3˚54ˏ33˝ E.
Derivatio nominis.
Named after
Maurice
Guilliou of Étoges, Marne,
France
, who has studied the fossils of the Paris Basin for many years and who first brought this taxon to the attention of the senior author.
Diagnosis.
A rather small, globose
Neritodryas
with 14 to 18 low, spiral ridges; septum edentate or with poorly defined teeth.
Description.
Protoconch, worn in all known specimens, appears ovate, about
0.4 mm
wide. Teleoconch consisting of about 2.5 whorls, globose with rather low but well-defined spire, large, rounded last whorl. Whorls convex, shouldered with short concavity immediately below impressed suture. On last whorl 14 to 18 low, flat or slightly rounded, spiral ridges with spaces between them approximately equal to width of ridges; ridges wider apart and broader at periphery. Fine, distinct, sinuous, collabral growth lines, opisthocyrt below suture. Aperture broad, septum smooth or with few slight curved ridges oblique to columellar edge; edge with slight, rounded swelling approximately one third of distance from adapical end, otherwise edentate or occasionally with up to 3 poorly defined teeth below it. Gutter between adapical end of the septum and outer lip. Outer lip thin, smooth within. Prominent ridge, slightly curved, below abapical end of septum.
Holotype
, though well preserved, without colour pattern, but yellowish grey colour apparent between ribs.
Paratype
illustrated in
Figure 5
has colour pattern of pale chevrons on dark brown background arranged in spiral lines, pointing in direction of growth.
Size.
Holotype
: height
15 mm
, width
16 mm
.
Remarks.
Neritodryas guillioui
is very similar to
Neritodryas globosa
(J. de C. Sowerby, 1823) (
Fig. 6
a– c), assigned here to
Neritodryas
rather than
Nerita
, from the Bartonian of the Hampshire Basin,
England
, however
Ns. globosa
has a larger number [
25 in
the
neotype
designated by Symonds (2002)
] of more prominent and more closely spaced ribs than
Ns. guillioui
.
Symonds (2002)
noted the similarity of
Ns. globosa
to
Neritodryas
but, with only the
neotype
available for study, did not move it to that genus. It is now clear, in view of the great similarity to
Ns. guillioui
, that
Ns. globosa
should be assigned to
Neritodryas
.
Neritodryas guillioui
is also very similar to
Ns. dutemplei
(
Deshayes, 1864
)
(
Fig. 7
a–c), again assigned here to
Neritodryas
rather than
Nerita
, which occurs with it in the Ypresian deposits at Pourcy.
Neritodryas dutemplei
can be distinguished from
Ns. guillioui
by the absence of conspicuous ribs in the former.
The operculum of
Neritodryas
has longitudinal ribbing on one of the apophyses, which forms an important characteristic of this genus but, unfortunately, no operculum has yet been found for any of the three fossil species referred to above.
Range and distribution.
Only known from
type
locality and one other site in the Ypresian (Sparnacian) at Pourcy, Marne,
France
.