Penion maximus

Penion maximus is a species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, commonly known as giant whelk or great whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks.

Penion maximus
A shell of Penion maximus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Caenogastropoda
clade Hypsogastropoda
clade Neogastropoda
Superfamily:
Buccinoidea
Family:
Buccinidae
Genus:
Penion
Species:
P. maximus
Binomial name
Penion maximus
(Tryon, G.W., 1881)

Description

Penion maximus is the largest species of Penion siphon whelk, and is endemic to Australia.[1][2] The species could be confused with the sympatric species P. mandarinus, however P. mandarinus is typically smaller and has a smoother shell with a shorter siphonal canal.[1]

Distribution

The range of the species extends from waters off Tasmania and Victoria to lower Queensland.[1][2]

Evolution

Penion maximus is closely related to another Australian species P. mandarinus.[2][3] The species have overlapping geographic ranges (sympatry) and may have evolved from a common ancestor via niche differentiation based on prey size and water depth.[3]

References
  1. Ponder, W.F. (1973). "A review of the Australian species of Penion Fischer (Neogastropoda: Buccinidae)". Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia. 2: 401–428. doi:10.1080/00852988.1973.10673868.
  2. Vaux, Felix; Hills, Simon F.K.; Marshall, Bruce A.; Trewick, Steven A.; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2017). "A phylogeny of Southern Hemisphere whelks (Gastropoda: Buccinulidae) and concordance with the fossil record". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 114 (2017): 367–381. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2017.06.018. PMID 28669812.
  3. Vaux, Felix; Crampton, James S.C.; Trewick, Steven A.; Marshall, Bruce A.; Beu, Alan G.; Hills, Simon F.K.; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2018). "Evolutionary lineages of marine snails identified using molecular phylogenetics and geometric morphometric analysis of shells". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 127 (October 2018): 626–637. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2018.06.009. PMID 29913310.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.