A revision of the Neogene Conidae and Conorbidae (Gastropoda) of the Paratethys Sea
Author
Harzhauser, Mathias
Author
Landau, Bernard
text
Zootaxa
2016
4210
1
1
178
journal article
37280
10.11646/zootaxa.4210.1.1
e782e07d-76b7-4e9b-ba34-ed3286254ec6
1175-5326
252966
D39416B8-CF85-440B-84C2-D4380BECC4E3
Genus
Monteiroconus
da
Motta, 1991
Type
species (by original designation):
Conus ambiguus
Reeve, 1844
.
Recent
,
West Africa.
Note.
According to
Tucker & Tenorio (2009)
, shells of the genus
Monteiroconus
da
Motta, 1991
are characterised by having concave spire whorls with cords present or absent; the spire may be convex in profile; the subsutural sinus is shallow to moderately deep, and the protoconch is multispiral. The genus has a rich European fossil record and today has a West African distribution. The molecular phylogeny presented by
Puillandre
et al
. (2014a)
confirmed the group to be monophyletic, although the authors recognise these groups at subgenus level. However, they also included two species (
C. gladiator
Broderip, 1833
and
C. mus
Hwass in
Brugière, 1792
), which one would not have expected based on shell characters, as both of these species have coarse tubercles on the spire whorls. Moreover, they both have a Caribbean distribution, whereas
Monteiroconus
as defined by
Tucker & Tenorio (2009)
is West African. We provisionally restrict the usage of the genus to that suggested by
Tucker & Tenorio (2009)
.
Monteiroconus
is a speciose conid genus in the Paratethyan assemblages. Based on these species we add that the genus is characterised by moderately large to large-sized, relatively solid shells. The spire is low to almost flat and in most species the spire whorls are striate. Often, spire whorls are bulgy along the lower suture. The subsutural flexures in all the species treated here are medium deep to deep, moderately to strongly curved and moderately to strongly asymmetrical. The relative diameter of the last whorl and length of the siphonal canal are variable but generally species have a wide to moderately wide last whorl.