The Lower Pliocene marine gastropods of Santa Maria Island, Azores: Taxonomy and palaeobiogeographic implications Author Sacchetti, Claudia 0000-0002-3225-3139 claudiasacc@icloud.com Author Landau, Bernard 0000-0002-7768-8494 bernardmlandau@gmail.com Author Ávila, Sérgio P. 0000-0002-3225-3139 claudiasacc@icloud.com text Zootaxa 2023 2023-05-24 5295 1 1 150 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5295.1.1 journal article 53396 10.11646/zootaxa.5295.1.1 82286fdc-a858-447c-9980-da2e8985d19c 1175-5326 7965273 F3A52660-70B8-439F-A7A0-F45ADC975EA5 Orania cf. bellardiana ( Foresti, 1884 ) Plate 5 F 1 -F 2 cf. * Pollia bellardiana Foresti, 1884: 304 , pl. 1, fig. 2. cf. Pollia bellardiana Foresti, 1884 — Ceregato et al . 2010: 56 , pl. 1, figs. 10-12. cf. Orania bellardiana ( Foresti, 1884 ) — Brunetti & Cresti 2018: 74 , fig. 267. Santa Maria material examined. Maximum height 17.0 mm, width 12.0 mm. DBUA-F 828-2 (1), Ponta dos Frades, Santa Maria Island, Azores , Touril Complex, Lower Pliocene. Discussion. The single specimen from Santa Maria is too poorly preserved to offer a description. Orania fusulus ( Brocchi, 1814 ) , from the Upper Miocene to present-day Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic from Portugal to Angola , including the oceanic islands of Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands, is slenderer, with a longer siphonal canal. Orania turrita ( Borson, 1821 ) has a similarly short siphonal canal, but is squatter, broader with a more scalate spire. In profile, the Azorean specimen is most like O. bellardiana ( Foresti, 1884 ) from the Lower Pliocene of Italy . That species had not been refigured since its original description until recently ( Ceregato et al . 2010 : pl. 1, figs. 10- 12; Brunetti & Cresti 2018 : fig. 267). Better preserved material would be needed to confirm this identification. Distribution. Lower Pliocene: Atlantic, Santa Maria Island, Azores (this paper).