†Neptunea angulata is an extinct species

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 large fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 sea snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

, a marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 gastropod mollusk in the family 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...

.

There is some confusion concerning the nomenclature (the naming) of this extinct taxon. The species was formerly known as Neptunea contraria

Neptunea contraria

Neptunea contraria is a left-handed species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks.-External links:*...

. This is, however, the name of a modern extant species, and therefore the two names are not synonyms. This has been clarified by Nelson & Pain, 1986.