Melanella alba ( da Costa, 1778 )

Bouchard, Blanche, Wesselingh, Frank P., Pouwer, Ronald & Landau, Bernard, 2025, The Gelasian gastropod fauna of Selsoif (Manche, France), Geodiversitas 47 (3), pp. 39-91 : 66

Melanella alba ( da Costa, 1778)

( Fig. 10F 1-F 3 )

Strombiformis albus da Costa, 1778: 116.

Melanella alba – Landau et al. 2018: 313, pl. 143, figs 1-3. — Menkhorst & Wesselingh 2018: 38, fig. 1.

For more, see synonymy list in Landau et al. (2018).

MATERIAL AND DIMENSIONS. — Maximum height 11.7 mm, width 3.7 mm. — RGM.1364919 (112), leg. WG ; RGM.1365000 (67), leg. ACJ ; RGM.1365103 (c. 50), leg. AWJ ; RGM.1365318 (1), leg. AWJ .

SPECIES CHARACTERISATION. — Relatively large, slender, elongate shell, slightly curved with smooth polished surface without magnification, finely reticulated sculpture under magnification. Nine flat teleoconch whorls separated by a shallow suture. Base flat; columellar lip short, thickened, almost straight to inclined; aperture pyriform.

DISTRIBUTION. — Middle Miocene: NSB, Netherlands ( Janssen 1984). — Upper Miocene: Atlantic, NW France ( Landau et al. 2018). — Lower Pliocene: Atlantic, NW France ( Van Dingenen et al. 2016); NSB, Coralline Crag, England (Harmer 1920), Kattendijk Formation, Belgium ( Marquet 1998). — Upper Pliocene: NSB, Red Crag, England (Harmer 1920), Atlantic, Portugal ( Landau et al. 2006); western Mediterranean, S Spain ( Landau et al. 2006). — Pliocene (unspecified): NSB, the Netherlands ( Van Regteren Altena et al. 1955; Menkhorst & Wesselingh 2018); Atlantic, St Erth, England (Harmer 1920), Selsoif NW France (this paper). — Holocene: NSB ( Strand Petersen 2004). Today this species is present in the Atlantic, from Norway and rare into the Mediterranean ( Fretter & Graham 1982).

Figures

FIG. 10. — Gastropods from Selsoif. All illustrated specimens are collected from the Sablière du Grand Marais, Selsoif, France and come from the Early Pleistocene Saint-Nicolas de Pierrepont Formation (continuation): A, Calyptraea chinensis s.l. (Linnaeus, 1758), RGM.1365194, leg ACJ, H = 3.2 mm; B, Crepidula gibbosa Defrance, 1818, RGM.1365185, leg AWJ, H = 3.3 mm; C, Capulus ungaricus (Linnaeus, 1758), RGM.1365200, leg AWJ, H = 12 mm; D, Aclis minor (Brown, 1827), RGM.1365257, leg AWJ, H = 1.79 mm; E, Aclis walleri Jeffreys, 1867, RGM.1365001, leg ACJ, H = 2.33 mm; F, Melanella alba (da Costa, 1778), RGM.1365318, leg AWJ, H = 5.96 mm; G, Velutina aff. velutina (Müller, 1776), RGM.1365186, leg AWJ, H = 3.27 mm; H, Trivia coccinelloides (J. de C. Sowerby, 1822), RGM.1365272, leg WG, H = 7.7 mm; I, Trivia coccinelloides (J. de C. Sowerby, 1822), RGM.1365271, leg WG, H = 6.38 mm; J, Trivia coccinelloides (J. de C. Sowerby, 1822), RGM.1365203, leg WG, H = 6.7 mm. Scale bars: A, B, G, 1 mm; C, F, H-J, 2 mm; D, E, 500 μm.

FIG. 1. — Simplified geological map of the Normandy region (after Dugué et al. 2000 and Pareyn 1987) showing the location of Selsoif:1, Precambrian-Palaeozoic basement; 2, Permo-Mesozoic Paris Basin fill; 3, Neogene-Quaternary subbasins.

FIG. 3. — Simplified biographic map of South-West of Europe (after Landau et al. 2011).