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 Bittium lacteum ( Philippi, 1836 ) * Cerithium lacteum Philippi 1836: 195 . Cerithiopsis lactea Philippi — Mayer 1864: 66 . Bittium lacteum ( Philippi, 1836 ) — Linden & Wagner 1990 , fig. 3. Bittium lacteum ( Philippi, 1836 ) — Poppe & Goto 1991: 111 , pl. 14, fig. 18. Bittium lacteum ( Philippi, 1836 ) — Landau et al . 2004b: 10 , pl. 2, fig. 2. Discussion. Mayer (1864: 66) recorded one specimen from the locality of Feteirinhas (= Ponta das Salinas ). Bittium lacteum ( Philippi, 1836 ) is characterised by its paucispiral protoconch and strongly tubercular spirals and three spirals on the base. We cannot confirm this record. This species does not occur nowadays in the Azores ( Ávila et al. 1998 , 2000; Martins et al . 2009 ; Cordeiro et al . 2015) nor it is present in the assemblages of the Last Interglacial deposits of Santa Maria Island ( Ávila et al . 2002 , 2009a , 2010, 2015a, 2018). Distribution. Lower Pliocene: Atlantic, Santa Maria Island, Azores ( Mayer 1864 ). Upper Pliocene: western Mediterranean, Estepona Basin, Spain ( Landau et al . 2004b ). Present-day: Atlantic, British Isles, Portugal , Canary Islands and Mediterranean ( Poppe & Goto 1991 ; Giannuzzi-Savelli et al. 1997 ).