Maturifusidae, Gründel, 2001

Webster, Nicole B & Vermeij, Geerat J, 2017, The varix: evolution, distribution, and phylogenetic clumping of a repeated gastropod innovation, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 180 (4), pp. 732-754 : 741

Maturifusidae

The family Maturifusidae comprises one core genus Maturifusus (Mid Jurassic to Late Cretaceous) and one or two additional genera according to various interpretations ( Guzhov, 2001; Kaim, 2004; Gründel, 2005). All have axially sculptured siphonate shells. A single species, Astandes ticurelatus ( Gründel, 2001) , from the Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) of Germany, has some axial ribs enlarged as varices ( Gründel, 2001), although these are not evident in the figures of Kaim (2004). The family is interpreted as either a stem group for neogastropods ( Guzhov, 2004; Blagovetshenskiy & Shumilkin, 2006) or as ancestral to the clade Latrogastropoda of Riedel (2000), which includes the siphonate Tonnoidea and Neogastropoda as well as Naticoidea, Cypraeoidea, and related clades (for discussion see also Gründel, 2005; Kaim & Beisel, 2005; Bandel & Dockery, 2012). We interpret the appearance of varices in M. ticurelatus as separate from that in Tonnoidea and the various neogastropod clades in which varices occur because of the long time gap between the Bathonian and the earliest varices in undoubted latrogastropods (Hauterivian, Early Cretaceous).