AMPULLINIDAE Cossmann, 1918

Islamoğğlu, Yeşşim, Dominio, Stefano & Kowalke, Thorsten, 2011, Early Eocene Caenogastropods (Mollusca, Gastropoda) from Haymana-Polatl Basin, Central Anatolia (Turkey): taxonomy and palaeoecology, Geodiversitas 33 (2), pp. 303-330 : 308

Family AMPULLINIDAE Cossmann, 1918

Ampullinidae represent large shallow-marine gastropods known since Jurassic times with the sole extant SE Asian survivor Cernina fluctuata (G. B. Sowerby, 1825) ( Kase & Ishikawa 2003). Ampullospirinae Cox, 1930 , Pseudamaurinae Kowalke & Bandel, 1996, Ampullininae Cossmann, 1918 , and Globulariinae Wenz, 1941 represent subfamilies (see Ponder & Lindberg 1997). Their members of the ampullinids are defined on the basis of teleoconch and protoconch morphology, e.g., egg-shaped to conical shell, low to elevated spire, rounded to tabulate whorls,columellar sheet,small protoconch reflecting planktotrophic early ontogenic development), which differentiates them from convergent naticids ( Kowalke 1998; Kase & Ishikawa 2003).

The mode of nutrition is recognized to be herbivorous (algal grazer) as described for extant C. fluctuata by Kase & Ishikawa (2003). Although we could only speculate on the feeding mode of the fossil species described here, the entire fauna lacks naticid boreholes. This could support the interpretation of a herbivorous mode also in case of the extinct species – moreover taking into account that drilling predation activities as characteristic feature of the naticids, are well known since the Mesozoic ( Vermeij 1977) and remarkably increased especially during the Eocene ( Kelley & Hansen 1996; Kase & Ishikawa 2003; see also Aronowsky & Leighton 2003).

The investigated specimens are morphologically similar to Ampullina Bowdich, 1822 and Crommium Cossmann, 1888 , although their protoconchs and details of teleoconch sculpture and apertural characteristics are not preserved. Thus, we prefer to use open nomenclature on generic level in order to avoid further confusion.