Timisia Jekelius, 1944

Harzhauser, Mathias, 2021, The Cainozoic to present-day record of Circum-Mediterranean, NE Atlantic and North Sea Cantharidinae and Trochinae (Trochoidea, Gastropoda) - a synopsis, Zootaxa 4902 (1), pp. 1-81 : 60-61

Genus Timisia Jekelius, 1944 †

Type species. Timisia pseudopicta Jekelius, 1944 (treated as subjective junior synonym of Turbo pictus Eichwald, 1830 ), OD ( Jekelius 1944: 43). Middle Miocene (Sarmatian), Romania.

Diagnosis. Small to medium-sized, solid, spherical to subquadrate shells with convex spire whorls. Shoulder angulation with narrow ramp frequently developed. Basal angulation weak. Spiral sculpture usually most prominent around sutural ramp. Umbilicus sealed or reduced to narrow chink.

Remarks. Švagrovský (1971) and Sladkovskaya (2017) rejected Timisia as separate genus and considered it to be a junior synonym of Gibbula . Sladkovskaya (2017) argued that the diagnosis of Jekelius (1944) referred to features “widely varying in Gibbula ”. This, however, resulted from a too broad generic concept of Gibbula , which was distinctly refined by recent molecular and morphometric data of Uribe et al. (2017a) and Affenzeller et al. (2017). Thus, in our opinion, the spherical to subquadrate outline and the usually strongly narrowed or sealed umbilicus along with the narrow sutural ramp justify a separation of Timisia from Gibbula s.s.

? = Pictiformes Kolesnikov, 1939 †

Type species. Monodonta mamilla sensu Kolesnikov, 1935 non Andrzejowski, 1830, OD ( Kolesnikov 1939: 701), established as section within Gibbula Risso, 1826 ). Middle-late Miocene (Bessarabian), Eastern Paratethys, Moldova.

Remarks. Pictiformes is available according to Article 10.4 of the ICZN ( A uninominal name proposed for a genus-group division of a genus, even if proposed for a secondary (or further) subdivision, is deemed to be a subgeneric name even if the division is denoted by a term such as “section” or “division”).

This taxon is problematic as Kolesnikov (1939) based it on a species, which he had described and illustrated in 1935 as Monodonta mamilla Andrzejowski, 1830 . The shells are reminiscent of ampulariids in outline and are clearly not conspecific with the turbiniform species described by Andrzejowski, 1830, which is currently placed in Homalopoma Carpenter, 1864 (see Landau et al. 2003). The narrow sutural ramp (“suture facet” sensu Kolesnikov, 1939) and the sealed umbilicus point to a placement in Timisia . The oldest record of this genus might be represented by Timisia pictiformis ( Andrussov, 1911) from the Chokrakian of Russia.