Ocenebra scorpio Harzhauser, Landau & Merle, 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Harzhauser, Mathias
name: Landau, Bernard M.
name: Merle, Didier
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mollusca
Gastropoda
Neogastropoda
Muricidae
Ocenebra
Ocenebra scorpio

description: Ocenebra scorpio sp. nov.
Figs 13, 25A–C
Murex Vindobonensis Hörnes —Hörnes 1853: 252 (pars) [non Ocenebra vindobonensis (Hörnes, 1853)].
Murex (Phyllonotus) Vindobonensis M. Hoern. —Hoernes & Auinger 1885: 213 (pars) [non Ocenebra vindobonensis (Hörnes, 1853)].
Type material. Holotype: NHMW 1851 /0026/0028a, SL: 32.1 mm, MD: 19.6 mm, Grund (Austria) Figs 25A 1 – A 3. Paratypes: NHMW 1851 /0026/0028b, SL: 32.5 mm, MD: 19.2 mm, Grund (Austria) Figs 25B 1 –B 3. NHMW 1851 /0026/0028c, SL: 36.3 mm, MD: 24.4 mm, Grund (Austria), Figs 25C 1 –C 3.
Type locality. Grund (Austria), North Alpine-Carpathian Basin.
Type stratum. Silt and clay of the Grund Formation.
Age. Middle Miocene, early Badenian (Langhian).
Etymology. scorpio, Latin for scorpion.
Diagnosis. Medium-sized, slender fusiform, trivaricate shell with high spire characterized by its varices with four prominent spines formed by P1, P3, P4 and P5; moderately long very narrow or partly fused siphonal canal.
Description. Medium-sized, slender fusiform, trivaricate shell with high spire; apical angle ~52°. Protoconch unknown. Teleoconch of up to six whorls. Suture moderately incised, shallowly undulating. Early teleoconch whorls high, with broad, weakly concave subsutural ramp, shoulder placed slightly above mid-whorl. Axial sculpture of three prominent varices with one intervarical rib; interspaces strongly widening during ontogeny. Spiral sculpture of adis, IP, abis, P1 and P2 with delicate secondary cords. Penultimate whorl with short, open spines at shoulder. Last whorl attaining ~72–75% of total height, allometrically widening with broad, shallow subsutural ramp, rounded shoulder, weakly convex periphery, moderately constricted below. Axial sculpture of three prominent, weakly foliaceous varices and one weaker intervarical rib. Spirals, P1, P3, P4 and P5 forming broad, prominent cords over varices terminating in moderately long, broad spines with rounded tips; P2 reduced; weak s1, s2, s3, s4 not always developed; weak P6 and ADP; spiral sculpture strongly reduced in interspaces between varices; intervarical ribs smooth, forming swelling at shoulder. Fasciole raised, relatively narrow, delimiting broad, shallow pseudoumbilicus. Aperture ovate; outer lip with crenulate edge, weak incision at P1. Blunt D1–D5 placed some distance behind peristome; D5 often weaker. Anal canal wide, indistinct; siphonal canal long, very narrow or partly fused, bent to the right, slightly dorsally recurved. Columella weakly excavated, smooth, weakly twisted at siphonal canal. Columellar callus forming broad, sharply delimited rim, erect at siphonal canal, adherent in parietal area.
Discussion. This species has been confused by Hörnes (1853) and Hoernes & Auinger (1885) with the superficially similar Ocenebra vindobonensis (Hörnes, 1853). They are distinguished by the higher spire and more incised suture of Ocenebra scorpio sp. nov. and by its reduced P2, resulting in varices with four prominent spines, whereas Ocenebra vindobonensis develops at least five spines. Both species co-occur at Grund (Austria), which might have led Hörnes (1853) and Hoernes & Auinger (1885) to lump them together. The peculiar spiral sculpture, the strong spines developed on the terminal varix at P1, P3–P5 and the strongly reduced P2 separates Ocenebra scorpio also from the extant type species Ocenebra erinaceus (Linnaeus, 1758).
Paleoenvironment. At the locality Grund fossiliferous channel fills, which formed in middle to outer neritic environments bear allochthonous assemblages uniting coastal-mudflat faunas with inner neritic ones (Zuschin et al. 2005; Roetzel 2009). Based on their preservation, the shells seem to belong to the faunas from inner neritic environments.
Distribution in Central Paratethys. Badenian (Middle Miocene): North Alpine-Carpathian Foreland Basin: Grund (Austria).
description: Published as part of Harzhauser, Mathias, Landau, Bernard M. & Merle, Didier, 2025, The Muricidae (Gastropoda, Muricoidea) of the Miocene Central Paratethys Sea (Haustrinae, Muricinae, Ocenebrinae, Pagodulinae, Typhinae, Muricidae incertae sedis), pp. 1-162 in Zootaxa 5572 (1) on pages 58-59, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5572.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14746115