Conus ornatus (Maury, 1917)

Conus mauryi (Finlay, 1916)

Conus aratus (Gabb, 1873)

Description ⁽¹⁾.

Conus ornatus Gabb, MS. Specimen No. 7671 Cornell University Museum. No description found ⁽¹⁾.

Shell of medium size, solid, spire very low, each of its volutions marked with four strong spiral threads and faint arcuate growth lines; body whorl sharply carinate, beneath the carina the sides slope slightly convexly and steeply to the base; ornamentation of about twenty-one very sharply incised spiral lines, obsolete on the upper fourth of the whorl ⁽¹⁾.

Length of shell 45, greatest width 27 mm ⁽¹⁾.

Our specimen was collected by Gabb in Santo labelled C. ornatus. I fail, however, to find any published description of this species ⁽¹⁾.

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Conus ornatus of Maury, 1917 and C. williamgabbi Maury, 1917 are also somewhat similar to C. lyelli, both having broad shells with low spires ⁽²⁾.

Finlay honored Maury with the nomen novum C. mauryi to replace the occupied name C. ornatus (Röding, 1798), which Maury applied to a very different species from the Dominican Republic ⁽²⁾.

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Conus aratus (Gabb, 1873)

Description ⁽⁴⁾.

Shell turbinated, apex acuminate, spire varying from nearly flat to elevated; the angle of the elevated apical volutions minutely crenulated; top of whorls flat or very slightly sloping, covered by well-marked striæ; outer edge sharply angulated. Body whorl straight on the sides or very faintly convex near the angle. Surface covered by distant, well marked impressed lines. At the anterior end these lines become confused and the shell marked by a series of wavy ribs. Aperture linear. Nearest to C. sulcatus, but differs in the straighter sides and more regular sulcation. In size and general form this shell is so like C. Haytensis that in view of the variable nature of that species, I could not have dared to separate it, were it not that I find the sulcation very constant in 19 specimens before me, and have not found it in the hundreds of examples of Haytensis. This seems to be a good distinguishing character ⁽⁴⁾.

This species resembles C. haytensis somewhat in form, but differs by having conspicuous, widely spaced spiral grooves on the lower two-thirds of the last whorl. These grooves are very sharply cut in half-grown shells ; in the largest example some of them are a little less deeply cut. There are about 12 widely spaced grooves and an equal number of close ones near the anterior end. The spire has close and rather deep spiral striae, 4 or 5 on each whorl. The inner whorls are inconspicuously tuberculate above the suture. The growth-lines retract strongly at the shoulder, as in C. stenostoma. which is allied ⁽³⁾.

Length 63, diam. 34 mm. Type.

Length 38, diam. 23.5 mm. Immature.

Type and 7 others are no. 2572 A. N. S. P.

C. ornatus Gabb of Maury is the half grown stage of C. aratus.

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Conus ornatus^(1) Plate 6 – Fig. 10 mm. 45 x 27 -------------- C. mauryi ^(2)	Conus aratus ^(3) Type - Plate XX, fig. 4 mm. 63 x 34

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Bibliografia Consultata

· (1) - Maury, C. J., 1917. Santo Domingo Type Sections and Fossils. Bulletins of American Paleontology, 5 (29 )

· (2) - 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”

· (3) - REVISION OF W. M. GABB'S TERTIARY MOLLUSC A OF SANTO DOMINGO. By Henry A. Pilsbry pag. 329

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