The Lower Pliocene marine gastropods of Santa Maria Island, Azores: Taxonomy and palaeobiogeographic implications Author Sacchetti, Claudia 0000-0002-3225-3139 claudiasacc@icloud.com Author Landau, Bernard 0000-0002-7768-8494 bernardmlandau@gmail.com Author Ávila, Sérgio P. 0000-0002-3225-3139 claudiasacc@icloud.com text Zootaxa 2023 2023-05-24 5295 1 1 150 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5295.1.1 journal article 53396 10.11646/zootaxa.5295.1.1 82286fdc-a858-447c-9980-da2e8985d19c 1175-5326 7965273 F3A52660-70B8-439F-A7A0-F45ADC975EA5 Fusinus sp. ? Plate 4 L Santa Maria material examined. Maximum height 51.0 mm, width 2.4 mm. One specimen from LNEG collection (unnumbered), Ponta do Norte lighthouse, Santa Maria Island, Azores , Touril Complex, Lower Pliocene. Description. Shell large, solid, fusiform, with moderate height conical spire. Protoconch missing. Six convex teleoconch whorls preserved. Surface on first four whorls eroded. Penultimate whorl convex, with periphery mid-whorl and suggestion of weak spiral sculpture. Last whorl broadly convex moderately constricted at base, with broad long siphonal fasciole; fine spiral sculpture above base, strong spiral cord on fasciole. Aperture ovate, outer lip incomplete, but without sign of labial varix. Discussion. A single large specimen in the LNEG collection with dorsum embedded in matrix, labelled Euthria af. magna Bellardi from Ponta do Norte lighthouse, is, in our opinion, not a Euthria Gray, 1850 (Superfamily Buccinoidea ) based on its very broad siphonal fasciole that is not recurved, as it is in the genus Euthria . The siphonal canal and tip of the fasciole are covered in matrix so we cannot confirm if the fasciole curves around a pseudoumbilicus as it does in many Fusinus species. Moreover, the outer lip is not thickened as it is in the genus Euthria . We have assigned it the subfamily Fusininae Wrigley, 1927 , genus Fusinus Rafinesque, 1815 tentatively, as we cannot match it to any European or West African fossil or extant species. However, it is somewhat reminiscent of another odd species, Fusinus clavilithoides Landau, Harzhauser, B ̧y̧kmeriç & Breitenberger, 2016 from the middle Miocene eastern Mediterranean Karaman Basin of Turkey but differs in having strong cords on the siphonal fasciole, lacking in the Turkish species. In their discussion, Landau et al . (2016: 223) considered the subfamily Peristerniinae Tryon, 1880 for their Turkish specimen, but members of that subfamily have columellar folds. The columellar edge is only partially exposed in the Santa Maria specimen but no signs of folds are seen. Distribution. Lower Pliocene: Atlantic: Santa Maria Island, Azores (this paper).