Tritonium
Encyclopedia
Tritonium is a genus
of sea snail
s, marine gastropod mollusks in the family
Cancellariidae
, the nutmeg snails.
The genus name Tritonium has been given twice to species with a different type species :
Neither of these original names is valid. Confusion increased when during the 18th and 19th century, authors added species but didn't specify to which Tritonium they belonged. The authors of the World Register of Marine Species
(WoRMS) have arbitrarily attributed the species now placed in Buccinidae, Muricidae, and other neogastropod families, to Tritonium O.F. Müller, 1776. The species now placed in Ranellidae and Bursidae, have been attributed to Tritonium Röding, 1798.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of sea snail
Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....
s, marine gastropod mollusks 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...
Cancellariidae
Cancellariidae
Cancellariidae, common name the nutmeg snails or nutmeg shells, are a family of small to medium-large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda...
, the nutmeg snails.
The genus name Tritonium has been given twice to species with a different type species :
- Tritonium O.F. Müller, 1776 : type species Buccinum undatumBuccinum undatumBuccinum undatum, known as the common whelk, is a large edible marine gastropod in the family Buccinidae, the "true whelks".-Distribution:...
Linnaeus, 1758 (given by Stewart in1926); this makes this name an objective synonym of BuccinumBuccinumBuccinum is a genus of medium-sized sea snails with an operculum, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks.Snails in this genus are commonly called whelks, a name that is however shared with several related and unrelated species...
. - Tritonium Röding, 1798 : type species : Murex tritonis Linnaeus, 1758 (given by Cossman in 1903); this makes this name an objective synonym of Charonia Gistel, 1847.
Neither of these original names is valid. Confusion increased when during the 18th and 19th century, authors added species but didn't specify to which Tritonium they belonged. The authors of the World Register of Marine Species
World Register of Marine Species
The World Register of Marine Species is a database that hopes to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms. The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scientific specialists on each group of organism. These taxonomists control the quality of the...
(WoRMS) have arbitrarily attributed the species now placed in Buccinidae, Muricidae, and other neogastropod families, to Tritonium O.F. Müller, 1776. The species now placed in Ranellidae and Bursidae, have been attributed to Tritonium Röding, 1798.
Species
Some of the species that used to be included within the genus Tritonium :- Tritonium clathratus (Linnaeus, 1767) : synonym off Boreotrophon clathratusBoreotrophon clathratusBoreotrophon clathratus, common name the clathrate trophon, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails....
(Linnaeus, 1767) - Tritonium submuricatumTritonium submuricatumTritonium submuricatum is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cancellariidae, the nutmeg snails.As the genus name Tritonium is no longer accepted, this species name has become a "species inquirenda"....
Schrenck, 1862 : (species inquirendaSpecies inquirendaIn biological classification, a species inquirenda is a species of doubtful identity requiring further investigation. The use of the term in English-language biological literature dates back to at least the early nineteenth century....
)