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 Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 ) Plate 2 M 1 -M 3 * Turbo cancellata da Costa 1778: 104 , pl. 8, figs. 6, 9. Rissoina crenulata Michaud — Mayer 1864: 57 . Alvania laxa Dautzenberg & Fischer 1896: 62-63 , pl. 19, figs. 10-11. Rissoia ( Acinopsis ) cancellata da Costa . sp.— Cerulli-Irelli 1914: 204 , pl. 16, figs. 16-20. Acinopsis cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Malatesta 1974: 174 , pl. 13, fig. 16. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Fretter & Graham 1978: 177 , figs. 152-153. Alvania ( Acinopsis ) cancellata (Da Costa 1779) — Cuerda Barceló 1987: 205 , pl. 16, fig. 22. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Poppe & Goto 1991: 99 , pl. 12, fig. 15. Alvania ( Alvania ) cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Cavallo & Repetto 1992: 52 , fig. 073. Alvania ( Alvania ) cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Giannuzzi-Savelli et al. 1997: 102 , fig. 398, 408b. Alvania ( Alvania ) cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Silva 2001: 142 , pl. 5, figs. 13-14. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Ávila et al . 2002: 353 , fig. 44. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Landau et al . 2004a: 36 , pl. 5, fig. 4. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )—Rolán 2005: 58, fig. 244. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Chirli 2006: 13 , pl. 5, figs. 12-16, pl. 6, figs. 1-4. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Martins et al. 2009: 62 , pl. 9, fig. 143-147. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Ávila et al . 2010: 34 , pl. 26, fig. 7-9. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Ávila et al . 2010: 34 , pl. 26, fig. 7-9. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Chirli & Linse 2011: 76 , pl. 20, fig. 3. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Tabanelli et al . 2011: 10 , figs. 9-10. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )—Hernández et al . 2011: 129, figs. 38N-Q. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Brunetti & Cresti 2018: 44 , fig. 93. Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 )— Tabanelli et al . 2020: 25 , pl. 2, fig. 19. Santa Maria material examined. Maximum height 4.0 mm, width 2.2 mm. DBUA-F 1296-3 (1), Malbusca, Santa Maria, Azores , Touril Complex, Lower Pliocene. Description. Shell relatively large, rissoiform, imperforate. Protoconch not preserved in Azorean specimen. Teleoconch of four weakly convex, almost flat-sided whorls, with the periphery just above abapical suture. Subsutural ramp narrow delimited by first spiral cord. Suture undulating and weakly impressed. Sculpture of axial ribs and spiral cords, about half as wide as their interspaces, forming a square reticulate pattern. Axial sculpture of strong, slightly prosocline, rounded ribs. Spiral sculpture of strong rounded cords, two on early whorls, three on penultimate, seven on last whorl, with pointed tubercles developed at sculptural intersection. Last whorl about 70% of total height, with three of the spiral cords placed above the aperture. Aperture ovate, peristome complete. Outer lip greatly thickened by broad labial varix bearing coarse tubercles where the spiral cords run onto the lip, inner edge bevelled, bearing about seven denticles within, anal sinus shallow. Peristome broad and greatly thickened. Discussion. The Azorean specimen is somewhat worn and missing its protoconch. Nevertheless, the relatively large, solid shell with coarsely cancellate sculpture is typical of Alvania cancellata (da Costa, 1778 ). Mayer (1864: 57) recorded the species as Rissoina crenulata Michaud, 1830 which is a synonym of A. cancellata . Two present-day Mediterranean species have similarly strong cancellate sculpture, A. hirta ( Monterosato, 1884 ) and A. subcrenulata (B. D. D. 1884), but they are both smaller. The former only has two spiral cords placed above the aperture on the last whorl and the latter has four as opposed to three in A. cancellata . For further discussion, see Landau et al . (2004a: 36-37) . Amati (1987: 28) considered specimens from the Azores previously identified as A. cancellata to represent an endemic species which he named Manzonia ( Alvinia ) sleursi . He considered A. cancellata not to occur living in the Azores . However, subsequent works by many authors (e.g., Gofas 1990 ; Hoenselaar & Goud 1998 ; Ávila et al . 2010 ) clearly demonstrate that Alvania cancellata is present in the Azores today. Identification of Alvania species in the absence of their protoconch is not easy. However, the specimen identified as A. cancellata herein has a conical spire rather than the strongly scalate spire seen in A. sleursi and has six spiral cords on the last whorl as opposed to five. Alvania sleursi also occurs in the Azorean Pliocene and is discussed below. Distribution. Lower Pliocene: Atlantic, Santa Maria Island, Azores ( Mayer 1864 ); central Mediterannean, Italy ( Chirli 2006 ; Brunetti & Cresti 2018 ; Tabanelli et al. 2020 ). Upper Pliocene: western Mediterranean, Estepona Basin, S. Spain ( Landau et al . 2004a ); central Mediterranean, Italy ( Malatesta 1974 ; Cavallo & Repetto 1992 ; Tabanelli et al. 2011 ). Lower Pleistocene: central Mediterranean, Italy ( Cerulli-Irelli 1914 ; Malatesta 1960 ). Pleistocene (intermediate): western Mediterranean, Balearic Islands ( Cuerda Barceló, 1987 ); eastern Mediterranean, Rhodes Island ( Chirli & Linse 2011 ). Last Interglacial, MIS 5e, Santa Maria Island ( Callapez & Soares 2000 ; Ávila et al . 2002 , 2009 b , 2010). Present-day: Atlantic, British Isles ( Fretter & Graham 1978 ), south into the Mediterranean, Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands, Cabo Verde and NW Africa ( Ávila et al ., 2012b ). Also reported from S„o Tomé Island ( Fernandes & Rolán 1993 ), low tide line to 90 m depth ( Poppe & Goto 1991 ).