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. 49h): Castlecliff, Wanganui, Castlecliffian (GNS, early collection) |
Beu & Maxwell (1990): Chapter 16; p. 356; pl. 49 h.
Synonymy: Fusus spiralis A. Adams 1856a, p. 221; Fusus pensum Hutton 1873a, p. 8; Columbarium suteri E. A. Smith 1915, p. 87; Coluzea espinosa Finlay 1930e, p. 268; Columbarium (Coluzea) spiralis
Classification: Turbinellidae: Columbariinae
Description: Moderately large for subfamily (60-110 mm high), very tall and narrow, with tall spire and very long, narrow, straight anterior canal (equal to height of aperture and spire). Whorls strongly angled at mid-height, with narrow, nodulous keel around shoulder angle, and a few low, narrow, widely spaced spiral cords above and below angle, including several down anterior canal; whole surface crossed by fine axial ridges. Aperture small, quadrate, with simple, unthickened inner and outer lips. Protoconch large and obvious, of 2 smooth whorls, the first low, wide and protruding laterally, the second taller, with a weak median angle.
Comparison: The rare Waipipian-Recent species Coluzea mariae has a much lower, less strongly stepped spire and weaker nodules than C. spiralis; the uncommon Waipipian- Mangapanian species C. spectabilis has more inflated whorls, and much more prominent, coarsely gemmate spiral cords than C. spiralis. The most similar (and so presumably ancestral) species is C. dentata (Pl. 21h; Otaian-Altonian; similar forms up to Tongaporutuan) which has more prominent, more consistently and evenly spaced spiral cords and more prominent axial folds, and so larger nodules around the keel than those of C. spiralis.
Distribution: Nukumaruan-Recent; Recent, New Zealand (types of Fusus spiralis, F. pensum, Columbarium suteri); "Petane, blue clays", i.e., hillside north of Petane Pa, north of Napier, Hawke's Bay, Nukumaruan (type of Coluzea espinosa). The most common species and the one living in the shallowest water (about 40-250 m) of the several Recent species of Coluzea around New Zealand, but nevertheless an uncommon species, dredged most commonly off the north-eastern North Island, on soft substrates. Uncommon in a few beds of offshore silty sandstone facies at Castlecliff, Wanganui (Castlecliffian; notably in Pinnacle Sand at "the pinnacles" gully), and rare in Nukumaruan siltstone in Wanganui basin, Hawke's Bay, and Wairarapa. Some specimens in Hawke's Bay-Wairarapa Nukumaruan rocks (C. espinosa) have smaller peripheral nodules than Castlecliff ones, but this variation can be matched in Recent shells.
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
(Included with a PDF facsimile file
copy of New Zealand Geological Survey Paleontological Bulletin 58 in CD version
from: Publications Officer, GNS Science, P.O. Box 30368 Lower Hutt, New
Zealand)