Varioconus ponderosus ( Brocchi, 1814 )

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 : 32-33

Varioconus ponderosus ( Brocchi, 1814)

(Figs 75–76)

1814 Conus ponderosus – BROCCHI, p. 293, pl. 3, fig. 1.

2014 Varioconus ponderosus (Brocchi) – KOVÁCS & VICIÁN, p. 87, figs 138–142 (cum syn.).

Material – 39 specimens – Coşteiu: M 60.9863.B., 60.9871., 60.9874., 60.9876., 60.9880., 60.9898.A., 60.10104.; Lăpugiu: M 59.2521., 59.2004.A., 60.8282.B., 60.8288.A-E., 60.8292.A-F., 60.8294.A-B., 60.8304., 60.8306.A., 60.8312.B-C., 60.8316.D., 60.8317.B., 60.8339.K-L., 60.8358.H., 60.9032.A-C., 60.9852.F-G., 64.241., 68.600.A.

Description – SL: 32–75. Spire of moderate height, outline straight. Whorls flat to convex, smooth. Shoulder subangulate to rounded. Body whorl conical, slightly convex, smooth with fine ridges at the anterior end. Aperture wide, somewhat flaring. Subsutural flexure asymmetrically curved.

Remarks – The species shows high level of intraspecific variability ( HALL 1964, DAVOLI 1972).

Distribution – Middle Miocene: Atlantic ( France), Paratethys ( Austria, Bosnia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine), Mediterranean ( Greece, Turkey).