Conus (Lautoconus) Monterosato 1923
Creators: name: Psarras, Christos
name: Merle, Didier
name: Koskeridou, Efterpi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neogastropoda
Conidae
Conus

description: Conus (Lautoconus) sp. 5
Figs 18–20, 40J; Table 10
Conus clavatulus – Davoli 1972: pl.4 figs 15–16 (non figs 5, 17 = Conus davolii sp. nov.) (non Conus clavatulus d’Orbigny, 1852).
Material examined
GREECE – Crete • 1 spec.; Filippi; Messara Basin, Tortonian; 35.035° N, 25.250° E; AMPG (IV) 3861.
Shell description
Moderately small (SL max.: 26.93 mm), biconical shell. Spire conical, straight. Early spire whorls straight to concave. Later spire whorls straight to convex, smooth. Suture moderately incised, undulated. Subsutural flexure very shallow, weakly curved, moderately asymmetrical (Fig. 40J). Last spire whorl with broad, straight to convex sutural ramp, continuing into smooth to subangulated shoulder and down to squished, rather sigmoidal last whorl. Maximum diameter right below shoulder. Aperture narrow, widening abapically. Siphonal canal long, straight. Fasciole indistinct. Faint spiral cords on quarter anterior part of last whorl.
Description of colour pattern
The colour pattern on the spire whorls consists of fluorescent irregular blotches and, inside those, randomly positioned, non-fluorescent tents. The tents continue until shoulder height. The colour pattern on the last whorl consists of two levels of pigmentation. The first pattern consists of amorphous, fluorescent blotches, disrupted by non-fluorescent tents. The second pattern consists of discontinuous, evenly distanced, spiral lines. The spiral lines are a series of alterations of fluorescent dots-dashes and non-fluorescent dashes. The second pattern, when overlapping the non-fluorescent tent level, displays only the fluorescent dots-dashes of the continuous spiral lines (Fig. 19).
Remarks
This species comprises only one specimen, partly broken (Table 10). Its biconical morphology is unique in the Greek collection. It could be compared with those studied by Davoli (1972) and named as? Conus clavatulus d’Orbigny, 1852 (MOD n°5569 bis and MOD n°5610). These specimens have not been studied under UV light; therefore, we place them within Conus (Lautoconus) sp. 5. The specimen (AMPG(IV) 3861) is similar to several species of Conus described from the Paratethys, discussed in Harzhauser & Landau (2016) as Leporiconus Iredale, 1930. This species differs from the Conus (Leporiconus) in lacking tubercles on the early spire whorls. Also, the shell is smooth, except for the faint spiral cords near the anterior part of the shell. For this reason, we prefer placing it into Conus (Lautoconus). The specimen has a morphology similar to Conus mucronatolaevis var. permamillata Sacco, 1893 (Sacco 1893b: pl. 6 fig. 33). Harzhauser & Landau (2016: fig. 35j) noticed that its colour pattern consists of a series of closely positioned lines of dots, a pattern very different from the Cretan material. Chelyconus spongiopictus Sacco, 1893 (Sacco 1893b: pl. 10 fig. 16) has a morphology of similar outline, but lacks the subangulated shoulder of the studied species. The colour pattern of irregular blotches and spiral lines of dots is similar to that of Conus (Stephanoconus) cf. taurinensis Bellardi & Michelotti, 1841. They are easily differentiated by the pyriform morphology of this specimen, with no tubercles and a not so inflated shoulder.
Stratigraphic range
?Tortonian of Italy from Montegibbio (Davoli 1972) and Greece (Messara Basin, Crete).
Concluding remarks about Conus (Lautoconus)
Two species, Conus (Lautoconus) eschewegi Pereira da Costa 1866 and Conus (Lautoconus) lauriatragei sp. nov., are mentioned in the Paratethys and mainly from the Pannonian Basin. Eight species, Conus (Lautoconus) eschewegi Pereira da Costa 1866, Conus (Lautoconus) ictini sp. nov., Conus (Lautoconus) sp. 2, Conus (Lautoconus) sp. 3, Conus (Lautoconus) cf. baldichieri, Conus (Lautoconus) damianakisi sp. nov., Conus (Lautoconus) sp. 4 and Conus (Lautoconus) sp. 5 are present in the Proto-Mediterranean (see Table 18). Conus (Lautoconus) sp. 1 is a species found only in Crete. Finally, this species assemblage suggests a much stronger relationship with the Proto-Mediterranean faunas than with the Paratethyan faunas.
The PCA graph (Fig. 20) shows that the species are morphologically similar and point out the necessity of the colour patterns as an extra characteristic for their identification (Psarras et al. 2021).
description: Published as part of Psarras, Christos, Merle, Didier & Koskeridou, Efterpi, 2022, Late Miocene Conidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Crete (Greece). Part 2, pp. 1-70 in European Journal of Taxonomy 816 on pages 31-34, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.816.1747, http://zenodo.org/record/6484261