Conus recognitus (Guppy, 1876)

Remarks ⁽¹⁾

The specimens of C. recognitus illustrated here (Fig. 17A-D) do fluoresce, but do not show evidence of a distinctive pattern, supporting the description provided above of a solidly pigmented ground pattern. The distinctive shell shape of C. recognitus separates the species from co-occurring fossil species. Conus recognitus is very similar in shell form to the extant eastern Pacific species C. patricius Hinds, 1843, an association also recognized by Woodring. The coloration pattern of Conus patricius (e.g., Fig. 17E) consists of a solid, cream-colored base pattern that sometimes also exhibits subtle spiral and/or axial bands of slightly different color. The patterning of C. patricius explains the undifferentiated regions of fluorescence shown here in C. recognitus.

Tucker and Tenorio assigned C. recognitus to the genus Pyruconus Olsson, 1967, which Puillandre et al. recognized as a subgeneric ranking. This assignment is followed here for C. recognitus.

Conus solidus ⁽⁴⁾

Testa turbinata, conica, crassa, levis, spira subproducta, levi, anfractuum marginibus rotundato-elevatis; anfractu ultimo striato, striis paucis, subobsoletis, canali recto.

This fossil is remarkable for retaining some traces of its living colours, the spire is marked with light rusty-brown dashes, and there are three rows of spots of the same colour on the last volution.

Conus cf. Patricius (Olsson, 1964)

A cone belonging to the C. recognitus-patricius group, the shape, pyriform, solid, the shoulder smoothly rounded, the whorls so closely coiled so that each whorl seems to embrace or overlap the suture of the preceding turn, the narrow surface of the exposed spire whorl or the subsutural fasciole flat or slightly convex, marked with the growth line trace of a shallow anal sinus and subobsolete spirals ⁽⁵⁾.

The figured specimen from Barro Colorado on the Río Santiago measures height 41 mm., greater diameter 27 mm. USNM 643937. C. patricius Hinds (C. pyriformis Reeve) is a recent species, the largest and heaviest in the Panamic-Pacific faunal zone ⁽⁵⁾.

Angostura formation: Telembi, Río Cayapas.

Borbon formation: Barro Colorado, Río Santiago.

Esmeraldas formation: Punta Gorda ⁽⁵⁾.

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) - Guppy, R. J. L., 1876. On the Miocene Fossils of Haiti. The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 32

• (3) - Hendricks (2018) “Diversity and preserved shell coloration patterns of Miocene Conidae (Neogastropoda) from an exposure of the Gatun Formation, Colón Province, Panama” May 2018, Journal of Paleontology 92(5):1-34

• (4) - Sowerby, G. B. I. (1850). Descriptions of new species of fossil shells found by J. Heniker. In: Moore, J. C., On some Tertiary beds in the Island of San Domingo; from notes by J. S. Heniker, Esq., with remarks on the fossils. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London. 6(1): 44-53, pls 9-10., available online at https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36933857 page(s): 45

• (5) - Olsson, A. A., 1964. Neogene Mollusks from Northwestern Ecuador