Cypraeogemmula, VREDENBURG, 1920

Groves, Lindsey & Squires, Richard L., 2023, Revision of northeast Pacific Paleogene cypraeoidean gastropods, including recognition of three new species: implications for paleobiogeographic distribution and faunal turnover, PaleoBios 40 (10), pp. 1-52 : 34-35

CYPRAEOGEMMULA VREDENBURG, 1920

Type Species— Trivia scabriscula Koenen, 1890 [non Trivia scabriscula ( Gray, 1827) ], = Cypraea liliputana Schilder, 1922 , by monotypy (of Vredenburg, 1920: p. 114), early Oligocene, Lattorf, northern Germany.

Diagnosis— Minute, ovoid, with visible spire (= protoconch) with patterns of rhombs. Dorsal surface of teleoconch ornamented with granulated spiral ribs not representing prolongations of apertural crenulations. Aperture nearly straight, terminated at each end by small canal. ( Vredenburg 1920).

Geologic Range— Middle lower Eocene (middle Ypre- sian), southwestern Washington ( Squires et al. 1996) and lowermost Oligocene, northern Germany ( Schilder 1922).

Remarks— Koenen’s (1890) Trivia scrabriuscula is a secondary homonym because Gray’s Cypraea scabriuscula is a triviid. Vredenburg (1920) used Koenen’s name when describing the genus Cypraeogemmula . The replacement name, Cypraea liliputana Schilder, 1922 , for Koenen’s name was allocated to the genus Cypraeogemmula by Schilder, 1927.

Cypraeogemmula is known from only two species: C. warnerae from the NEP region and C. liliputana from up- per Eocene (Priabonian Stage) in Ukraine ( Pacaud 2018c) and the lowermost Oligocene in Germany ( Schilder 1922).

The following is a communiqué from P. Bouchet ( MNHN, personal communication April 1996) to R.L. Squires: “Your recent paper in the last issue of the Veliger very appropriately places Cypraeogemmula in the fam- ily Ovulidae . You did not cite Pedicularia , but you will be astonished by the similarity of the juvenile/subadult Pedicularia and Cypraeogemmula . Both Pedicularia and Cypraeopsis feed on stylasterids and occur in bathyal environments ( Pedicularia also in shallow water). This could shed light on the paleoecology of Cypraeogemmula warnera [sic].” Based on its similarity to modern species, Fehse (2018) stated that Cypraeogemmula is a synonym of Pedicularia . However, although similar, a total lack of any possible molecular evidence for the ex- tinct Cypraeogemmula makes this purely an assumption. Lorenz and Fehse (2009) note that “taxonomy is based on geography, the shell sculpture, and morphometry” in Holocene species.