Ecphora
| Ecphora Temporal range: Eocene–Piacenzian |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| An apertural view of a shell of the ecphora known as Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae, drawn by J. C. McConnell | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda cladeHypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Muricoidea |
| Family: | Muricidae |
| Subfamily: | Ocenebrinae |
| Genera | |
|
See text |
|
See text
Ecphora is the common name for a group of extinct predatory marine gastropod mollusks within the family Muricidae, the rocks snails or murexes. The common name is based on the first officially described genus, Ecphora. The entire lineage of these ocenebrinid murexes are descended from the Eocene murex, Tritonopsis. Ecphoras are indigenous to the North American Eastern Seaboard, being found in marine strata from the Late Eocene until their extinction during the Pliocene. Many ecphora species are important index fossils.
The name "Ecphora" is Greek, meaning "bearing out." The word was originally used by Vitruvius to signify the projecture of a member or moulding of a column, and here refers to the distinctive "T-shaped" ribs that project from the shell.
There are at least 70 recognized species in eight genera, and one subgenus of ecphoras recognized.
In his book, The Field Guide to Ecphoras, Edward Petuch proposed that the ecphoras comprised the subfamily "Ecphorinae," a sister-group of the Rapaninae that were descended from various Maastrichtian Texan species of the Mesozoic murex genus Saragana. However, later research lead Petuch to revise ecphora evolution: now, the ecphoras are thought to be ocenibrenine murexes descended from the Eocene genus Tritonopsis, which is a common fossil in marine Eocene strata of the Southeastern United States. The closest living relatives of the ecphoras is the extant ocenibrine murex genus Forreria.
...
Wikipedia