Fulgurofusus Grabau, 1904

Harasewych, M. G., 2011, The Living Columbariinae (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda: Turbinellidae) of New Zealand, Zootaxa 2744 (1), pp. 1-33 : 24

Genus Fulgurofusus Grabau, 1904

Synonymy:

Fulgurofusus Grabau, 1904:86 ; Wenz, 1941: 1086; Shimer & Shrock, 1944: 507; Darragh, 1969: 99; Harasewych, 1983b: 5. Columbarium (Fulgurofusus) Bayer, 1971: 170 .

Type species. Fusus quercollis Harris, 1896 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Shell of moderate size (to 86 mm), fusiform, with short or tall, conical spire, rounded whorls, peripheral keel that may be prominent and flange-like or a weakly nodulose cord, weak anterior carina, and stout, axial siphonal canal of moderate length. Protoconch cylindrical to weakly conical, of 1½–3 whorls. First whorl bulbous, deviated. Transition to teleoconch generally indistinct. Suture adpressed onto or slightly above anterior carina. Spiral sculpture of numerous fine threads and weak cords extending from suture to middle of siphonal canal. Early whorls with two closely adjacent cords along periphery, forming an incised furrow between them. Axial sculpture of small nodules along periphery, or low ribs extending from suture to siphonal canal. Outer lip porcellaneous, furrowed beneath periphery. Inner lip smooth, with outermost layers of previous whorls resorbed prior to deposition of a thin glaze that does not produce a raised lamina. Shell color uniformly white. Rachidian teeth of radula with 3 cusps on a U-shaped basal plate with prominent lateral expansions (e.g. Harasewych 1983b: fig. 9).

Remarks. The genus Fulgurofusus is based on a Paleocene type species from the Gulf Coast of the United States. Several Eocene species have been reported from western North America and Antarctica. In the Recent fauna, Fulgurofusus is the most wide ranging genus within Columbariinae , extending from the Bering Sea to the Bounty Plateau along the western Pacific, and from the Blake Plateau to the Scotia Sea in the western Atlantic. Columbarium tomicici McLean & Andrade, 1982 , from lower bathyal depths off Chile is likely referrable to Fulgurofusus [based on the lack of a raised columellar lamina and the presence of rachidian teeth with a laterally expanded basal plate ( McLean & Andrade 1982: figs. 26–30)], further expanding the range of this genus. Unlike other columbariine genera, the bathymetric range of Fulgurofusus extends to the lower continental slope and onto the abyssal plain, especially near the poles.

Finlay (1930b: 267–268) considered Fulgurofusus to be less advanced than Coluzea , and presumed it to be ancestral to Coluzea .