Gibbula vimontiae Monterosato, 1884

Harzhauser, Mathias, 2021, The Cainozoic to present-day record of Circum-Mediterranean, NE Atlantic and North Sea Cantharidinae and Trochinae (Trochoidea, Gastropoda) - a synopsis, Zootaxa 4902 (1), pp. 1-81 : 29-30

Gibbula vimontiae Monterosato, 1884

Present-day: Mediterranean Sea.

(MolluscaBase 2020h)

Note: Gibbula bertarelli Andreoli & Marsigli, 1997 , from the Zanclean of the Mediterraean Sea ( Chirli 2004; Forli et al. 2014), is excluded from Gibbula and is currently placed in the Turbinidae genus Heteroninella Magne, 1941 (Landau & Lozouet 2002; Landau & Mulder 2020).

Genus Gibbuliculus nov. gen.

= “ Colliculus ” sensu auctores non Monterosato, 1888

Type species. Gibbula brebioni Landau, Van Dingenen & Ceulemans, 2017 ; upper Miocene , Tortonian, NW France .

Diagnosis. Small trochiform shells with conical spire. Protoconch smooth, paucispiral. Spire whorls flat to moderately convex, rarely convex; shallow to weakly incised suture. Weak to moderately prominent spiral sculpture, usually of fine, close-set spiral cords; axial sculpture weak, restricted to prosocline growth lines. Rounded basal angulation in most species; base weakly convex. Weak to faint columellar swelling present. Umbilicus moderately narrow to distinctly narrowed to chink by inner lip.

Etymology. A combination of Gibbula and Colliculus; gender masculine.

Stratigraphic and geographic range. First species appeared in the Rupelian in the Proto-Mediterranean Sea and during the Egerian (late Oligocene) in the Central Paratethys. During the Miocene, Gibbuliculus is recorded from the NE Atlantic, the Proto-Mediterranean Sea and the entire Paratethys and reached the North Sea during the Pliocene. Last occurrences are known from the Mediterranean Pleistocene.

Discussion. Several small sized fossil species with moderately high conical shells, flat to moderately convex whorls, frequently with weak basal angulation, a moderately wide to distinctly narrowed umbilicus and weak to moderately prominent spiral sculpture have been traditionally placed in Colliculus Monterosato, 1888 (e.g. Boettger 1907; Cossmann & Peyrot 1917; Iljina 1993; Marquet & Landau 2006; Ceulemans et al. 2016; Landau et al. 2017). In the molecular analysis of Barco et al. (2013), however, Trochus adansonii Payraudeau, 1826 , the type species of Colliculus, nests within Steromphala species and Colliculus is treated as synonym of Steromphala (see Uribe et al. 2017a). In terms of shell shape, these species are far from Steromphala species as defined by Affenzeller et al. (2017). Similarly, the high trochiform shell excludes a placement in Gibbula .

Included species: