Conus furvoides                (Gabb, 1873)

Conus furvoides  brachys (Pilsbry & Johnson, 1917)

 



Description (2):

 

Shell elongately turbinated, narrow, nearly or quite smooth, striated in some cases anteriorly by a few wavy lines ; spire acuminate but not very elevated; the first whorls elevated and sloping on the top, acute-angulated ; the later whorls more or less deeply channeled and sometimes striated on top. Aperture linear. Color pattern unknown.

About the size of C. furvus, Rve., and similar in the form of the body whorl. The spire, however, is much lower and the tops of whorls are markedly grooved in all the specimens I have seen. An unusually broad specimen before me is not unlike a very narrow example of C. monilis, which it also resembles in the concave sides of its spire

 

Coloration pattern (1)

Two weakly interacting patterns (one complex, one simple) present; it is not clear which pattern is primary. The more complex pattern consists of axially arranged markings that extend from the base to shoulder and onto the sutural ramp. These markings may also cover broader areas of the last whorl, forming unpigmented axial or diagonal blotches. PRI 67240 (Fig. 20D) shows evidence of the temporary cessation of the complex pigmentation field (though not necessarily cessation of shell production) in the direction of growth, followed by its later resumption, resulting in oppositely-patterned regions that appear like puzzle pieces that might fit together. The simpler pattern consists of at least 12–17 spiral rows of dots (the extent of this pattern on the anterior third of the last whorl is not known). Interaction between the two coloration patterns occurs when the spiral dots intersect the margins of the axial patterns; this results in the formation of small, triangular shaped blotches. The two patterns do not differ in the color of emitted light. The complex last whorl pattern extends over the shoulder onto the sutural ramp.

Remarks (1)

Conus furvoides has cannot be easily confused with co-occurring fossil species. It does, however, shares similarities in shell form with some extant members of the subgenus Dauciconus Cotton, 1945 (sensu [2]) (Tucker and Tenorio [34] assigned C. furvoides to Dauciconus, although at the genus level).

Some specimens of C. (Dauciconus) virgatus Reeve, 1849, an eastern Pacific species, exhibit the puzzle-piece like arrangement of axial streaks described above (e.g., http://www.gastropods.com/9/Shell_769.shtml), while some specimens of C. (Dauciconus) recurvus Broderip and Sowerby, 1833—an eastern Pacific species that is the sister taxon of C. virgatus [1]—show evidence of diagonal blotches (e.g.,http://www.coneshell.net/pages/c_recurvus.htm). Neither C. virgatus, nor C. recurvus, however, show evidence of rows of spiral dots on the last whorl, which are observed in C. furvoides. Conus furvoides is also similar in shell shape to C. villepinii Fischer and Bernardi, 1857, an extant western Atlantic species also assigned by Puillandre et al. [2] to the subgenus Dauciconus. The coloration pattern of C. furvoides, however, differs substantially from the specimens of C. villepinii figured by Kohn [8]; in particular, the last whorl coloration pattern of C. villepinii—which consists of two discontinuous spiral bands, resulting in axial streaks—is not present in C. furvoides.

 

Conus furvoides brachys is shorter than furvoides. The last 4 whorls are concave and weakly striate spirally. It stands close to C. concavitectum of Gatun, but that species has more cpious and granulous spiral striae in the lower half, and the spiral striation of the spire is distinct (4).

 


 

 

Dauciconus furvoides (1)

( D ) PRI 67240, SL 42,3 mm

Reversed images photographed under UV light

Dauciconus furvoides (1)

(A-B) PRI 67239, SL 40,8 mm

Reversed images photographed under UV light

Conus furvoides brachys (3)

TAV. XX fig. 3

mm. 37,5 x 

Oligocene

Santo Domingo

Dauciconus furvoides (1)

( C ) PRI 67238, SL 36,6 mm

Reversed images photographed under UV light

 


 

 

 

 

Conus virgatus

mm. 48

 

 

 

 



Bibliografia Consultata

·         (1) - Hendricks (2015) “Glowing Seashells: Diversity of Fossilized Coloration Patterns on Coral Reef-Associated Cone Snail (Gastropoda: Conidae) Shells from the Neogene of the Dominican Republic

·         (2) - Gabb, W. M., 1873. On the Topography and Geology of Santo Domingo. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, 15: 49 -259

·         (3) - Pilsbry (1921) “ Revision of W. M. Gabb's Tertiary Mollusca of Santo Domingo

·         (4) - Pilsbry, H. A., and Johnson, 1917. Oligocene Fossils from the Neighborhood of Cartegena, Columbia, with Notes on Some Haitian Species. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 69

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