Conus hennigi (Hendricks, 2015)

Description

Shell size. Shell moderately small (largest observed specimen, PRI 66164, is 25.6 mm).

Last whorl. Ventricosely conical (RD 0.60–0.62, μ = 0.61; PMD 0.82–0.84, μ = 0.83; n = 2); outline slightly convex. Shoulder subangulate, smooth. Widest part of shell below shoulder. Aperture uniform in width from base to shoulder. Siphonal notch absent. Widely spaced spiral threads on anterior half that are sometimes beaded.

Spire whorls. Spire height high (RSH 0.27–0.30, μ = 0.29; n = 2); outline straight. Protoconch unknown. Early postnuclear whorls unknown; tubercles absent from preserved whorls. Sutural ramp convex, with at least 3 spiral threads. Subsutural flexure nearly symmetrical, depth approximately 0.9x width.

Coloration pattern. One pattern present. Pattern consists of wavy to nearly straight, typically non-branching thin axial streaks that in many cases extend from the base to the shoulder. Axial streaks on the last whorl appear to extend onto the sutural ramp.

Etymology: Named for Willi Hennig (1913–1976), developer of cladistics.

Material examined

Holotype: PRI 66164. Paratypes: PRI 67167 and PRI 67168. All type specimens are from TU station 1422.

Type locality and horizon TU 1422: Arroyo Bellaco, Dominican Republic; upper Miocene Cercado Formation.

Remarks

The only co-occurring fossil species with an overall shell shape—particularly a high spire—that is similar to Profundiconus? hennigi is Conus bellacoensis sp. nov., but that species has a very different coloration pattern, has tubercles on most of the spire whorls, and also lacks spiral threads on its sutural ramp. There are no extant western Atlantic cone snails that have a shell morphology similar to P.? hennigi. Interestingly, however, P.? hennigi does bear some resemblance in shell form to a living Indo-Pacific cone species that Tucker and Tenorio [34] assigned to the genus Profundiconus Kuroda, 1956: P. lani Crandall, 1979, which was illustrated by Röckel et al. ([6], pl. 27, Figs. 10–12). Given the strong similarity in shell form between this new fossil species and Profundiconus lani, the same genus-level assignment is tentatively followed here (Puillandre et al. [1] also recognized Profundiconus as a distinct clade of cone snails and demonstrated that it is basal to all other cone snail clades). Profundiconus? hennigi is the only known representative of the genus in the Neogene of the Dominican Republic.

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Conus hennigi

A-E: PRI 66164 (holotype), SL 25.5 mm

F: PRI 67168 (paratype), SL 17.6 mm

G: PRI 67167 (paratype), SL 24.9 mm

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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”