Lautoconus kovacsi
Creators: name: Harzhauser, Mathias
name: Landau, Bernard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neogastropoda
Conidae
Lautoconus
Lautoconus kovacsi

description: Lautoconus kovacsi nov. sp.
Figs 3 W, 16E1–E3, 16F1–F3, 16G1–G2, Figs 16 I1–I3
Varioconus taurinensis (Bellardi et Michelotti, 1840) — Kovács & Vicián 2013: 88, fig 143–148 [non Lautoconus taurinensis (Bellardi & Michelotti, 1840)].
Holotype: Figs 16 E1–E3: SL: 19.8 mm, MD: 11.4 mm, NHMW 2016/0003/0001. Paratype: Figs 16 F1–F3: SL: 18.8 mm, MD: 11.8 mm, NHMW 2016/0003/0003. Paratype: Figs 16 G1–G2: SL: 20.1 mm, MD: 12.1 mm, NHMW 2016/0003/0002. Paratype: Figs 16 H1–H3: SL: 18.7 mm, MD: 11.7 mm, NHMW 2016/0003/0004a. Paratype: Figs 16 I1–I3: SL: 17.2 mm, MD: 10.0 mm, NHMW 2016/0003/0004a. Additional material. 7 specimens NHMW 2016/0003/0004, Fig. 3 W: SL: 18.3 mm, MD: 10.6 mm, all
specimens from Letkés, Hungary.
Type stratum. fossil-rich marly sand with coral blocks and andesite boulders of the Sámsonháza Formation (Császár 1997).
Type locality. Letkés at the western part of the Börzsöny Mts. (Hungary); see Kovács & Vicián (2013) for a map and description.
Age: Middle Miocene, early Badenian (= Langhian).
Etymology. In honour of Zoltán Kovács (Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest), who published the milestone paper “ Kovács & Vicián 2013 ” on the Badenian Conidae from Letkés.
Description: Small, globose shells with mammillate, moderately high spires and convex last whorls. Early spire whorls pointed but usually eroded; later spire whorls faintly striate to smooth, weakly to strongly convex, partly bulgy, forming conical to cyrtoconoid, gradate spire; suture deeply incised, not channelled. Subsutural flexure shallow, moderately curved, moderately asymmetrical. Last whorl with weakly angulated shoulder, position of maximum diameter slightly below shoulder. Inflated to cylindrical below shoulder and rapidly contracting in lower half of shell. Strongly constricted at base separating a comparatively narrow and moderately long, weakly recurved siphonal canal. Few spiral cords on base; faint spiral cords may appear on entire last whorl. Siphonal fasciole nearly absent. Colour pattern very strong in UV light, consisting of four broad bands of partly amalgamated and partly well separated blotches; first one closely below shoulder, second one slightly above midwhorl, third one below mid-whorl above constriction, fourth one on base and siphonal channel. Blotches of the uppermost band continue as narrower flammulae on the last spire whorl; additional wide-spaced flammulae on spire whorls.
Shell measurements and ratios. n = 11: largest specimen: SL: 20.3 mm, MD: 12.9 mm, mean SL: 18.6 mm (σ = 1.4), mean MD: 11.4 mm (σ = 0.9), spire angle: µ = 102° (σ = 8.2), last whorl angle: µ = 42.3° (σ = 3.0), LW: µ = 1.64 (σ = 0.09), RD: µ = 0.74 (σ = 0.06), PMD: µ = 0.80 (σ = 0.03), RSH: µ = 0.17 (σ = 0.03).
Discussion. This is a very peculiar small cone, which is characterised by its globose, columbellid shape unknown from any other Paratethyan species. It is reminiscent of some species of the Indo-West Pacific genus Pseudolilliconus Tucker & Tenorio, 2009, such as Pseudolilliconus traillii (Adams, 1855) and Pseudolilliconus wallacei (Lorenz & Morrison, 2004), but the much larger size of the Paratethyan species makes a direct relation with this tiny cone genus unlikely. This strange species was identified by Kovács & Vicián (2013) as Varioconus taurinensis (Bellardi & Michelotti, 1840), which develops also a weakly gradate spire but differs in its elongate and straight-sided last whorl (see Landau et al. 2013 and references therein). Artemidiconus dertogranularis (Sacco, 1893), from the Tortonian of Stazzano in Italy, is slightly similar in shape and size but differs in its typical midwhorl groove on the spire whorls.
This species is known so far only from Letkés. A non-Paratethyan occurrence, however, might be represented by the specimen illustrated in Peyrot (1931, pl. 2, fig. 11) as Conus mucronatolaevis globospira (Sacco) from the Langhian of Salies-de-Béarn in the Aquitaine Basin. Conus globospira Sacco, 1893, from the Burdigalian of the Turin Hills, differs clearly in its much more elongate last whorl.
Paleoenvironment. The locality Letkés comprises a mixed assemblage of partly reworked taxa (Kovács & Vicián 2013); the frequent occurrence of corals suggests a shallow marine depositional environment.
Distribution in Paratethys. Badenian (middle Miocene): Pannonian Basin: Letkés (Hungary).
Proto-Mediterranean Sea and north eastern Atlantic.? Langhian (middle Miocene): Aquitaine Basin: Salies-de-Béarn (France).
description: Published as part of Harzhauser, Mathias & Landau, Bernard, 2016, A revision of the Neogene Conidae and Conorbidae (Gastropoda) of the Paratethys Sea, pp. 1-178 in Zootaxa 4210 (1) on pages 77-79, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4210.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/252966