Conilithes antidiluvianus (Bruguière, 1792)

(Fig. 11; Table 5)

Conus antidiluvianus Bruguière, 1792: 637 .

Conospirus antediluvianus – Sacco 1893a; b: 39, pl. 4, fig. 35.

Conus (Conospirus) antediluvianus – Dermitzakis 1969: pl. 78, fig. 7.

Conus (Conolithes) antidiluvianus – Muñiz Solís 1999: 69-71, fig. 8O-Q.

Conilithes antidiluvianus – Caze 2010: fig. 37B. — Harzhauser & Landau 2016: 46, figs 3C, 5J 1 -J 3, 5K 1, 6A 1 -A 3.

Conus antidiluvianus – Janssen et al. 2014a: 13, fig. 16; 2014b: 227.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Neotype: MSNM i28027, Badagnano, Rio dei Carbonari (Italy), designated by Janssen et al. (2014a), Pliocene. TYPE LOCALITY. — Badagnano, Rio dei Carbonari, Piacenza Province, Italy (Pliocene, Piacenzian, Castell’ Arquato Formation). STRATIGRAPHIC RANGE. — Early-middle Miocene of Paratethys (see Harzhauser & Landau 2016 for detailed references), Tortonian of Italy (Sant’Agatha Fossili, Stazzano, Montegibbio [Sacco 1893a]) and Greece (Ierapetra Basin, Crete); Pliocene of Italy (Hall 1966; Janssen et al. 2014a, b), Greece (Heraklion Basin, Crete [Caze 2010]) and other localities in France (Biot), Sicily, Turkey (Hatay Basin) and Syria (Erünal-Erentöz 1958; Janssen et al. 2014a). MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Makrilia: one broken specimen AMPG(IV) 2691 displaying faint colour patterns under UV light.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLOUR PATTERN

Colour pattern is absent on most of the specimen’s surface. There is a faint pattern of axially arranged, rectangular blotches along the posterior two-thirds of last whorl (Fig. 11A 3).

REMARKS

The name of this species has been thoroughly discussed (Janssen et al. 2014a; b; Harzhauser & Landau 2016), This species is conspicuously absent from most of the localities studied herein, probably due to its deep-water habitat (Harzhauser & Landau 2016). Only one specimen has been recovered by us from the Makrilia Fm (Table 5; Fortuin 1978), found inside rubble. Recently Moforis et al. (2013) found Pliocene strata from Makrilia, but our specimen collected at the base of Makrilia Fm., is Tortonian in age. Dermitzakis (1969) has also reported this species from the Asari section (Ierapetra Basin) while Caze (2010) reported it from the Pliocene of Kavrochori village (Heraklion Basin). Despite the bad preservation of the colour pattern of our specimen, it resembles the well-preserved colour pattern of Saccos’ figure (Sacco 1893b: pl. 4, fig. 35) and the figured specimen by Caze (2010: fig. 23B).

CONCLUDING REMARKS ABOUT CONILITHES

Conilithes dujardini (Deshayes, 1845) had been thought to exist in Paratethys and Proto-Mediterranean seas during the Miocene. Past Greek researchers identified almost all Conilithes species (the exception is Conilithes antidiluvianus (Bruguière, 1792)) as Conilithes dujardini (e.g., Symeonidis 1965; Symeonidis & Konstantinidis 1968; Dermitzakis 1969). Harzhauser & Landau (2016) proved the presence of multiple Conilithes species for the Langhian-Serravallian of the Paratethys, describing six species. Herein, using ultraviolet light, we propose five species for the Tortonian of Crete, with three of them not present in Paratethys, thus revealing the diversity of this genus. The species are easily recognizable by their colour pattern variations. Despite their differences, the similarities of their patterns, such as the continuous spiral lines and spiral rows of dots-dashes, along with the spiral bands, show a close relation between these species. Morphological differences exist in most species, shown using principal components analysis, using the ratios LW, RD, RSH, and PMD (PCA, Fig. 12). Two of these species seem to have similar morphological variations, Conilithes brezinae and Conilithes herodus n. sp., suggesting a very close relationship.