Neritodryas Martens, 1869

Symonds, Malcolm Francis & Pacaud, Jean-Michel, 2010, New species of Neritidae (Neritimorpha) from the Ypresian and Bartonian of the Paris and Basse-Loire Basins, France, Zootaxa 2606, pp. 55-68 : 60-62

Genus Neritodryas Martens, 1869

Type species. By subsequent designation, Baker (1923: 153): Nerita cornea Linné 1758 . Recent, freshwater, Indopacific.

Diagnosis. Moderately large, up to 40 mm in height, spire blunt, labial area smooth, a blunt tooth below, often with small teeth on septum edge, operculum ribbed. (Amended after Keen 1960).

Remarks. Martens (1869), when erecting Neritodryas , placed within it the two Recent species N. cornea ( Linné, 1758) and N. dubia ( Gmelin, 1791) . Subsequently ( Martens 1879) he covered Neritodryas in greater detail and included two additional species N. chimmoi ( Reeve, 1856) and N. subsulcata ( Sowerby, 1836) . He described the columellar edge of Neritodryas as being without teeth but specimens of all four of these species commonly have small columellar teeth (pers. obs.). Accordingly Marten’s diagnosis is incorrect in this respect and we have amended the above diagnosis to include a reference to small teeth on the septum edge. All the Recent species have spiral ridges on the teleoconch except for N. dubia , which is smooth, apart from fine collabral growth lines. The genus is unusual within Neritidae in that the Recent species live mainly on trees and bushes beside freshwater and in mangrove swamps ( Cowie & Smith 2000). The ontogeny of Neritodryas is not fully known. Kano (2006) considered that the considerable intraspecific variation in the size of the opercular nucleus might suggest nonplanktotrophic development. Holthuis (1995) took the view that Neritodryas species have short-lived, possibly non-feeding (lecithotrophic) pelagic larvae as, firstly, the protoconch size is intermediate between planktotrophic veligers of Neritina and Clithon and those of benthic Fluvinerita and, secondly, their geographic distribution is extensive enough to imply pelagic larvae even though more limited than ranges of typical Neritina and Clithon .

Neritodryas guillioui sp. nov. ( Figs 4–5 )

Type material. Holotype MNHN A31490 (Faullummel coll., Fig. 4 a–c); one paratype MNHN A31491 (Pacaud leg., Fig. 5 a–c), 4 paratypes MNHN A32900 (Pacaud leg.) 5 paratypes MNHN A31492 (Faullummel coll.). All from type locality.

Stratum typicum. Early Eocene, Ypresian (Sparnacian), “Sands of Pourcy”.

Locus typicus. Pourcy, Marne, France. 49˚09ˏ33˝ N 3˚54ˏ33˝ E.

Derivatio nominis. Named after Maurice Guilliou of Étoges, Marne, France, who has studied the fossils of the Paris Basin for many years and who first brought this taxon to the attention of the senior author.

Diagnosis. A rather small, globose Neritodryas with 14 to 18 low, spiral ridges; septum edentate or with poorly defined teeth.

Description. Protoconch, worn in all known specimens, appears ovate, about 0.4 mm wide. Teleoconch consisting of about 2.5 whorls, globose with rather low but well-defined spire, large, rounded last whorl. Whorls convex, shouldered with short concavity immediately below impressed suture. On last whorl 14 to 18 low, flat or slightly rounded, spiral ridges with spaces between them approximately equal to width of ridges; ridges wider apart and broader at periphery. Fine, distinct, sinuous, collabral growth lines, opisthocyrt below suture. Aperture broad, septum smooth or with few slight curved ridges oblique to columellar edge; edge with slight, rounded swelling approximately one third of distance from adapical end, otherwise edentate or occasionally with up to 3 poorly defined teeth below it. Gutter between adapical end of the septum and outer lip. Outer lip thin, smooth within. Prominent ridge, slightly curved, below abapical end of septum. Holotype, though well preserved, without colour pattern, but yellowish grey colour apparent between ribs. Paratype illustrated in Figure 5 has colour pattern of pale chevrons on dark brown background arranged in spiral lines, pointing in direction of growth.

Size. Holotype: height 15 mm, width 16 mm.

Remarks. Neritodryas guillioui is very similar to Neritodryas globosa (J. de C. Sowerby, 1823) ( Fig. 6 a– c), assigned here to Neritodryas rather than Nerita , from the Bartonian of the Hampshire Basin, England, however Ns. globosa has a larger number [ 25 in the neotype designated by Symonds (2002)] of more prominent and more closely spaced ribs than Ns. guillioui . Symonds (2002) noted the similarity of Ns. globosa to Neritodryas but, with only the neotype available for study, did not move it to that genus. It is now clear, in view of the great similarity to Ns. guillioui , that Ns. globosa should be assigned to Neritodryas . Neritodryas guillioui is also very similar to Ns. dutemplei ( Deshayes, 1864) ( Fig. 7 a–c), again assigned here to Neritodryas rather than Nerita , which occurs with it in the Ypresian deposits at Pourcy. Neritodryas dutemplei can be distinguished from Ns. guillioui by the absence of conspicuous ribs in the former.

The operculum of Neritodryas has longitudinal ribbing on one of the apophyses, which forms an important characteristic of this genus but, unfortunately, no operculum has yet been found for any of the three fossil species referred to above.

Range and distribution. Only known from type locality and one other site in the Ypresian (Sparnacian) at Pourcy, Marne, France.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 4. 1. Tomostoma angusta sp. nov., holotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c-d. side views. Length 5.2 mm, width 2.8 mm. Bartonian, Le Quoniam, Haravilliers, Val d’Oise, France. MNHN A 31487 (J-M Pacaud leg.). 2. Nerita gouetensis sp. nov., holotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 4 mm, width 4 mm. Bartonian, Bois- Gouët, Saffré, Loire-Atlantique, France. MNHN A 31489 (J-M Pacaud leg.). 3. Clithon barbei sp. nov., holotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 3.2 mm, width 3.2 mm. Ypresian, Pourcy, Marne, France. NHM PI TG 26448 (M. F. Symonds coll.). 4. Neritodryas guillioui sp. nov., holotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 15 mm, width 16 mm. Ypresian, Pourcy, Marne, France. MNHN A 31490 (Faullummel coll.).

FIGURES 5 – 8. 5. Neritodryas guillioui sp. nov., paratype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 14.5 mm, width 15 mm. Ypresian, Pourcy, Marne, France. MNHN A 31491 (Faullummel coll.). 6. Neritodryas globosa (J. de C. Sowerby, 1823), neotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 18.2 mm, width 13.8 mm. Bartonian, Highcliff, Hampshire, U. K. NHM GG 22558 (A. G. Davis coll.). 7. Neritodryas dutemplei (Deshayes, 1864), a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. apical views. Height 9 mm, width 9.1 mm. Ypresian, Pourcy, Marne, France. MNHN A 31493 (Faullummel coll.). 8. Cuisenerita tuberosa sp. nov., holotype, a. apertural, b. abapertural, c. & d. side views. Length 14 mm, width 12.5 mm., Ypresian, Trosly-Breuil, Oise, France. NHM PI TG 26450 (S. Tracey coll.).