Turritella Lamarck 1799

Genus Turritella Lamarck, 1799

Type species: Turbo terebra Linnaeus, 1758, by monotypy (Lamarck 1799: 74). Recent, Indo-West Pacific.

Remarks. Turritella s.s. comprises medium sized to very large species. The wide and simple lateral sinus, which lacks distinct inflection points, is very characteristic for Turritella and Zaria (Gray, 1847) (Figs 6A, 6E). The basal sinus is straight to moderately prosocyrt. Marwick (1957) described a B-A-C order of appearance of primary spiral cords and an intercalation of a prominent s spiral cord, appearing even before C begins. We were not able to document this pattern in the Paratethyan species, because the earliest teleoconch whorls are missing in all specimens.

In the Paratethys, the genus is represented by Turritella inaequicingulata and T. gradata. The moderately incised suture, rather weak convexity with a somewhat flattish adapical part of the whorls, elongate-subcircular aperture and the shape of the early teleoconch whorls, which are less numerous, higher and more regularly increasing in width compared to Turritella terebra might suggest a closer relation with the extant West African Turritella ungulina, T. ligar, and T. sanguinea, the last also from southern east Africa, than with the Indo-Pacific type species. No inner lirae have been observed in the Paratethyan Turritella species.