Lautoconus miovoeslauensis ( Sacco, 1893 )

Kovács, Zoltán & Balázs, Péter, 2015, Conidae (Neogastropoda) assemblage from the Middle Miocene of the Făget Basin (Romania) in the collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Fragmenta Palaeontologica Hungarica 32, pp. 11-48 : 20

Lautoconus miovoeslauensis ( Sacco, 1893)

(Figs 26–27)

1879 Conus (Chelyconus) ventricosus Bronn – HOERNES & AUINGER, pl. 6, figs 5–6 only.

1893 Conus (Chelyconus) miovoeslauensis – SACCO, p. 108.

2014 Chelyconus miovoeslauensis (Sacco) – KOVÁCS & VICIÁN, p. 60, figs 11–15 (cum syn.).

Material – 4 specimens – Lăpugiu: M 60.7443.C., 60.8313.H., 60.8360.D., 60.9032.E.

Description – SL: 22–30. Spire of moderate height, narrow, outline straight to slightly concave. Shoulder rounded. Body whorl ventricosely conical, outline convex, smooth with 4–5 widely spaced spiral grooves at the base. Colour pattern consists of two different types of spiral rows that regularly alternate: a row of small dots and a row of larger dots, visible under UV light. Subsutural flexure asymmetrically curved, of moderate depth.

Remarks – L. miovoeslauensis differs from the closely allied L. bitorosus in oval shell with rounded shoulder and narrower spire, and in colour pattern. In the genus level classification we underline the relationship between the two species. The species was abundant in the Letkés assemblage with two phenotypes (smooth or granulate shells) ( KOVÁCS & VICIÁN 2014). From Lăpugiu only four specimens can be recorded, all bear smooth shell.

Distribution – Middle Miocene: Paratethys ( Austria, Hungary, Romania).