CYPRAEOGEMMULA VREDENBURG, 1920

Type Species— Trivia scabriscula Koenen, 1890 [non Trivia scabriscula (Gray, 1827)], = Cypraea liliputana Schilder, 1922, by monotypy (of Vredenburg, 1920: p. 114), early Oligocene, Lattorf, northern Germany.

Diagnosis— Minute, ovoid, with visible spire (= protoconch) with patterns of rhombs. Dorsal surface of teleoconch ornamented with granulated spiral ribs not representing prolongations of apertural crenulations. Aperture nearly straight, terminated at each end by small canal. (Vredenburg 1920).

Geologic Range— Middle lower Eocene (middle Ypresian), southwestern Washington (Squires et al. 1996) and lowermost Oligocene, northern Germany (Schilder 1922).

Remarks— Koenen’s (1890) Trivia scrabriuscula is a secondary homonym because Gray’s Cypraea scabriuscula is a triviid. Vredenburg (1920) used Koenen’s name when describing the genus Cypraeogemmula. The replacement name, Cypraea liliputana Schilder, 1922, for Koenen’s name was allocated to the genus Cypraeogemmula by Schilder, 1927.

Cypraeogemmula is known from only two species: C. warnerae from the NEP region and C. liliputana from upper Eocene (Priabonian Stage) in Ukraine (Pacaud 2018c) and the lowermost Oligocene in Germany (Schilder 1922).

The following is a communiqué from P. Bouchet (MNHN, personal communication April 1996) to R.L. Squires: “Your recent paper in the last issue of the Veliger very appropriately places Cypraeogemmula in the family Ovulidae. You did not cite Pedicularia, but you will be astonished by the similarity of the juvenile/subadult Pedicularia and Cypraeogemmula. Both Pedicularia and Cypraeopsis feed on stylasterids and occur in bathyal environments (Pedicularia also in shallow water). This could shed light on the paleoecology of Cypraeogemmula warnera [sic].” Based on its similarity to modern species, Fehse (2018) stated that Cypraeogemmula is a synonym of Pedicularia. However, although similar, a total lack of any possible molecular evidence for the extinct Cypraeogemmula makes this purely an assumption. Lorenz and Fehse (2009) note that “taxonomy is based on geography, the shell sculpture, and morphometry” in Holocene species.