Buccinum mirandum
Encyclopedia
Buccinum mirandum is a species
of sea snail
, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family
Buccinidae
, the true whelks.
There are two subspecies :
has five, hardy perceptable spiral ribs, with the upper one somewhat nodose. The surface is puckered below the suture. The surface has a fine sculpture
with minute spiral lines mingled with coarser lines. The aperture
is ovate and oblong and its interior is brownish ochraceous. The outer lip is white.
, Korea
and the Kuril Islands
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of sea snail
Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....
, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Buccinidae
Buccinidae
Buccinidae is a very large and diverse taxonomic family of large sea snails, often known as whelks or true whelks.True whelks are mostly marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda...
, the true whelks.
There are two subspecies :
- Buccinum mirandum mirandum Smith, 1875
- Buccinum mirandum picturatum Dall, 1887
Description
The shell grows to a length of 45 mm. It is white with a creamy or brownish tint and is covered with rusty brown spots. The body whorlBody whorl
Body whorl is part of the morphology of a coiled gastropod mollusk.- In gastropods :In gastropods, the body whorl, or last whorl, is the most recently-formed and largest whorl of a spiral or helical shell, terminating in the aperture...
has five, hardy perceptable spiral ribs, with the upper one somewhat nodose. The surface is puckered below the suture. The surface has a fine sculpture
Sculpture (mollusc)
The sculpture of a mollusc shell is the three-dimensional ornamentation on the outer surface, as distinct from the basic shape of the shell itself or colouration. Sculpture may be concave as well as convex. Sometimes it has microscopic detail. Sculpture refers to the calcareous outer layer, not the...
with minute spiral lines mingled with coarser lines. The aperture
Aperture (mollusc)
The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc....
is ovate and oblong and its interior is brownish ochraceous. The outer lip is white.
Distribution
This marine species is distributed in the Pacific Ocean along JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and the Kuril Islands
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands , in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, form a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. It consists of Greater...