Epitonium tiberii de Boury 1889

Epitonium tiberii (de Boury, 1889)

Fig. 13 d–f

Parviscala soluta De Boury, 1889 (p. 245).

Parviscala tiberii De Boury, 1889 (p. 326).

Epitonium (Parviscala) tiberii (Boury) — Nordsieck 1968 (p. 82, pl. 13, fig. 47.64).

Epitonium tiberii (de Boury, 1890) — Bouchet & Warén 1986 (p. 506, figs. 1169, 1185, 1191–1192); Cachia et al. 1996 (p. 147, pl. 16, fig. 6); Repetto et al. 2005 (p. 164, top left fig); Beck et al. 2006 (p. 59, bottom fig.); Peñas et al. 2006 (p. 90, figs. 139, 153).

Diagnostic characters. Turreted, high-spired shell; small umbilical chink; 20–22 continuous, straight, strong, prosocline lamellar ribs forming an adapical coronation on shoulder; faint spiral microstriation in the interspaces between ribs. Protoconch: conical; 4 whorls; diameter about 280 µm (protoconch I: 90 µm); height about 320 µm; first 1.25 whorls (protoconch I) smooth; subsequent whorls (protoconch II) with thin opisthocyrt lamellar growth markings and a subsutural spiral thread; last 0.2 whorl smooth; transition to the teleoconch marked by a simple lip.

Remarks. Parviscala tiberii is the original replacement name for Scala soluta Tiberi (1863) = non Adams (1862) (CLEMAM 2016). The closely related Epitonium algerianum (Weinkauff, 1866) lacks the spiral thread on the protoconch (cf. Gofas 2004).

Occurrence. Box-corer samples BC05 (1 specimen), BC66 (2), BC67 (1); core BC72 (2). Maximum height: 3 mm.

Distribution and habitat. Epitonium tiberii is commonly found on the continental shelf of southern Europe including the Mediterranean. There are only few reports from Atlantic waters, ranging from the Bay of Biscay to the Cape Verde Islands, and also from seamounts (Bouchet & Warén 1986; Beck et al. 2006); it is an epibathyal element, apparently reaching its shallower limit (67 m) in gold coral forests (Cerrano et al. 2010). Fossil record. Pliocene of Sicily (De Boury 1889).