Melanopsis major Ferussac , 1823" mentioned in Wenz (1929: 2773)

Neubauer, Thomas A., 2016, A nomenclator of extant and fossil taxa of the Melanopsidae (Gastropoda, Cerithioidea), ZooKeys 602, pp. 1-358 : 162

† " Melanopsis major Ferussac, 1823" mentioned in Wenz (1929: 2773) [unavailable]

Horizon.

Burdigalian, early Miocene.

Locality.

"De Mandillot, près de Dax" [Mandillot, near Dax], France.

Remarks.

This name has appeared several times in the literature (e.g., Bronn 1848: 717; Wenz 1929: 2773), but it is based on an error. Férussac (1823: 154) actually described Melanopsis dufourii var. ε and listed " Fossilis , major. Férussac” in synonymy referring to plate 1 of the “Mélanopsides fossiles" of his "Histoire naturelle" ( Férussac 1819-1851; see also introduction for details about this work). However, in the captions of plate 1, it is given as " Melanopsis Dufourii , var. ε). Fossilis , maxima ". Obviously neither major nor maxima was intended as species-group name by Férussac. Later, the name would have been a junior homonym of Melania buccinoidea major Grateloup, 1838.