Nucella demouthae, Powell & Roth & Garcia, 2023

Powell, II, Charles L., Roth, Barry & Garcia, Christine N., 2023, Nucella demouthae, A New Species of Late Miocene Muricid Gastropod From Northern California, U. S. A., PaleoBios 40 (12), pp. 1-11 : 3

NUCELLA RÖDING, 1798

California fossil and modern Nucella are herein divided into three groups based on similar appearance. Group one is characterized by N. lamellosa , which commonly has an elongated shell and has radial sculpture. Spiral sculpture can also be present, or absent, as in smooth shells without sculpture. This group also includes N. demouthae n. sp., N. etchegoinensis , and N. shumanensis ( Carson, 1926) ; the latter may be synonymous with N. lamellosa with further study. Group two is characterized by N. analoga ( Forbes, 1852) with a generally smaller shell that is commonly more compressed and has weak to strong spiral sculpture. This group includes N. angustior Houart, Vermeij, and Wiedrick (2019) , N. canaliculata ( Duclos, 1832) , N. elsmerensis ( Grant and Gale, 1931) , N. emarginata ( Deshayes, 1839) , N. lima ( Gmelin, 1791) , N. megastoma Vermeij and Powell, 2004 , N. ostrina ( Gould, 1852) , N. packi ( Clark, 1918) , N. rankini Grant and Eaton in Eaton et al., 1941, N. tokudai (Yokoyama, 1932) [= N. packi v. talea Stewart (1946) fide Amano et al. 1993:240] and probably N. trancosana ( Arnold, 1908) . The third group is characterized by “ N. ” collomi ( Carson, 1926) with its large adult size and strong to weak spiral sculpture, and includes “ N ”. funkeana ( Adegoke, 1969), and “ N.” imperialis . This third group may require further taxonomic revision and assignment to a different genus.