Melongena lainei (de Basterot, 1825)

(Fig. 11 A-C)

Pyrula lainei de Basterot, 1825: 67, pl. 7, fig. 8.

Melongena lainei – Sacco 1904: 32, pl. 9, figs 23, 24. — Lozouet et al. 2001: 62, pl. 28, figs 1a & b, 2, 3 (cum syn.). — Harzhaus- er & Kowalke 2001: 365, fig. 6.2. — Harzhauser 2007: 106, pl. 6, fig. 3. — Lozouet 2014: 285, fig. 209 A-G.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — AMPG (IV) 2467, 2468 (two specimens).

DIMENSIONS. — Maximum height: 98.0 mm (incomplete).

DISTRIBUTION. — Late Oligocene. Paratethys: Hungary (Báldi 1973); Indo-Pacific Ocean: Oman (Harzhauser 2007).

Early Miocene. Aquitanian. NE Atlantic: France (Lozouet et al. 2001; Lozouet 2014); Proto-Mediterranean Sea: Greece (Harzhauser & Kowalke 2001); Burdigalian. NE Atlantic: France (Lozouet et al. 2001; Lozouet 2014); Proto-Mediterranean Sea: Italy (Sacco 1904).

REMARKS

Two specimens of the species were recovered, that can be easily distinguished from other species of Melongena mainly by having a spiral sculpture of spiral angular cords separated by deep furrows (of variable width), an elongated slightly pyriform shape, and has a single row of shoulder spines.

Melongena lainei has been found in the neighbouring location of Agapi in the Aquitanian of the Mesohellenic Basin (Harzhauser & Kowalke 2001). Melongena lainei semseyiana (Erdös, 1900) is found in the late Oligocene of the Mesohellenic Basin; it is considered to represent a chrono-subspecies (Harzhauser 2004) and is treated as belonging to the M. semseyana lineage by Landau et al. (2013). In the middle Miocene of the Proto-Mediterranean (Turkey), this melongenid is replaced by M. jaapi Landau, Harzhauser, İslamoğlu & Silva, 2013, a species easily distinguished from M. lainei in having shorter spires and a more inflated last whorl.

Modern representatives of Melongena live in the intertidal zone (some can be found up to depths of 30 m) of the Caribbean, the Panama, and Indo-Pacific bio-provinces and are predators mainly on bivalves (including burrowing species) (Lozouet & Londeix 2014b). In the fossil record, M. lainei is present in brackish-water paleocommunities in the Proto-Mediterranean during the Aquitanian and the Burdigalian (Harzhauser & Kowalke 2001; Lozouet et al. 2001).

Superfamily TURBINELLOIDEA Rafinesque, 1815