Conus (Hemiconus) selseiensis (Cossmann, 1896)

Descrizione e caratteristiche:

The English C. selseiensis Cossmann, 1896 (Plate 1, Fig. 8) has a pleated subsutural collar recalling that of Hemiconus except that the pleats are a result of regular, incised growth striae rather than discrete rounded beads. With its low spire C. selseiensis Cossmann, 1896 has a somewhat distant resemblance to Hemiconus and so we refer it to this genus with a query ⁽²⁾.

Brughiere, in 1792, described a shell and called it Conus antidiluvianus believing that it had been found in Courtagnon. In reality it was a sub-Apennine shell, and Lamarck, misled by this indication of provenance, cited Conus antidiluvianus in his "Memoirs" as a species from the Paris basin. In 1814, Brocchi correctly applied the name Conus antidiluvianus to the typically Pliocene sub-Apennine shells, to which it strictly belongs. Subsequently, Edwards indicated the name Conus lamarckii to identify a species including two different varieties of Conus, one English and one French, both from the middle Eocene, but in the illustrations he used specimens from Bramshaw, belonging to the Selsey Formation, identified as Conus selseiensis ( Edwards, 1856): Conus lamarckii was therefore not depicted.

---

Fig. 8 : Hemiconus selseiensis (Cossmann, 1896)

Lectotype NHMUK PI OR 71197(1) (coll. EDWARDS)

Middle Lutetian, Bramshaw (Hants)

---

Bibliografia Consultata

• (1) - COSSMANN (M.) – 1896 – Essais de paléoconchologie comparée, 2. 179 pp., pls. 1-8. Cossmann, Paris.

• (2) - Steve TRACEY, Brian CRAIG, Laurent BELLIARD & Olivier GAIN. One, four or forty species? - early Conidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda) that led to a radiation and biodiversity peak in the late Lutetian Eocene of the Cotentin, NW France.