Revised descriptions of New Zealand Cenozoic Mollusca from Beu and Maxwell (1990)
| | Revised descriptions of New Zealand Cenozoic Mollusca from Beu and Maxwell (1990) |
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  (Pl. 47c): holotype, GS3893, W15/f7501, Ohope Beach, Whakatane, Castlecliffian (TM4908, GNS) |
Beu & Maxwell (1990): Chapter 16; p. 347; pl. 47 c.
Synonymy: Haliotis powelli Fleming 1952, p. 231
Classification: Haliotidae
Description: Small for genus (47 mm long), very weakly inflated, with clearly spiral, very low apex but extremely large, depressed last whorl and very large aperture, passing its exhalent current out 4 tremata near the columellar lip; formerly open tremata form a spiral row of low nodes. Sculpture of 20 prominent, narrow, rounded spiral costae, each interspace with several finer costellae, all crossed by irregular, weak to prominent growth ridges.
Comparison: Haliotis flemingi is much flatter and more prominently sculptured than the Haweran to Recent species H. (Sulculus) australis and H. (Sulculus) virginea; and much smaller, flatter, more coarsely sculptured, and with a narrower columellar lip than the well-known "paua", H. (Paua) iris (Opoitian-Recent).
Distribution: Castlecliffian, Ohope Beach, Whakatane (type), not uncommon; ? Nukumaruan, Pohangina Valley, eastern Wanganui basin (Carter 1972, fig. 22, p. 316). A rare fossil, known with certainty only from Ohope Beach but representative of a reasonably good fossil history of Eocene-Pleistocene Haliotis in New Zealand (most records unpublished; see also Haliotis n. sp., Pl. 13g, k; Lee et al. 1983, fig. 2, 3, p. 124).
Cite this publication as: "A.G. Beu and J.I. Raine (2009). Revised
descriptions of New Zealand Cenozoic Mollusca from Beu and Maxwell (1990). GNS
Science miscellaneous series no. 27."
© GNS Science, 2009
ISBN
978-0-478-19705-1
ISSN 1177-2441
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