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346 ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA 56 (2), 2011
Table 1. Summary comparative table of the diagnostic characters to discriminate ampullinids and naticids (considering anatomical and morphologi−
cal characters from Kase 1990, and Kase and Ishikawa 2003a) supplemented with colour pattern features (this paper).
Ampullinidae Naticidae
Feeding habits Algal grazer Carnivorous predator
Anatomical features – foot with small, flat, quadrangular propodium and massive, short
metapodium;
– foot with a large plow−like propodium;
– head with a long extensible proboscis con−
– wide, flat, bipartite and snoutless head without extensible proboscis taining the radula
Morphological features – highly elevated and pointed spire;
– tabulate whorls;
– low spire with obtusely pointed apical
whorls;
– columellar lip lined abaxially with a sheath;
– anterior tip of the columellar lip often expanding abaxially into a
round lobe;
– devoid of a sheath and developing instead
one or more funicles;
– species with small protoconch have
– species with small protoconch have protoconch consisting of
1.2–1.5 helicoidal, smooth and inflated whorls.
protoconch consisting of 2.2–3.5
planispirally and ornamented whorls.
Colour pattern features – Classes II, III, IV;
– Classes II, III, IV not observed;
Class II
– parallel zigzagging stripes;
– non−parallel zigzagging stripes;
– few zigzags per stripe;
– numerous zigzags per stripe;
– very heterogeneous zigzags’ amplitude.
– homogeneous zigzags’ amplitude.
Conclusions
The study of the residual colour patterns provides much new
morphological information on fossil Cainozoic species of the
family Ampullinidae. The testing on Mesozoic species pro−
vided up to now only negative results. Future observations of
very well preserved material (e.g., Cretaceous from Northern
America, Jurassic from Eastern Europe) nevertheless may
complete the present study. The diversity of Cainozoic colour
patterns appears to a greatest magnitude during the Middle
Eocene, when the specific richness of the family is most pro−
nounced, as observed in the stromboid family Seraphsidae
(Caze et al. 2010).
Firstly, we demonstrated that there is an obvious similarity
between the residual pattern of fossil Globularia and that of
the extant Globularia (Cernina) fluctuata. Secondly, in the
other studied genera, some species display intermediate pat−
terns suggesting a transition between Globularia and Ampul−
lina (A. intermedia; Fig. 3) and between Globularia and
Pachycrommium (Globularia (C.) sp.; Fig. 5).
Otherwise the colour patterns of fossil ampullinids and
naticids appear easily distinguishable (Le Meur 2009; Fig.
11) and can be used as an additional diagnostic character to
discriminate the two families (Table 1). Thus, although the
request of Aronowsky and Leighton (2003) for more detailed
morphological studies was correct, we can safely confirm the
suggestion of Kase and Ishikawa (2003a) that fossil, or at
least Cainozoic, and Recent ampullinids should be removed
from Naticidae. Nevertheless, we should urge caution be−
cause the species with the general colour pattern of class I are
difficult to adjudicate. Finally, we believe that molecular se−
quence data analyses would be helpful to resolve this ques−
tion definitively and thus test the relevance of the use of UV
light in such cases. Despite the existence of only a single liv−
ing representative, we can assert that the colour patterns of
Globularia remain almost unchanged from the Early Palaeo−
gene to the Recent, the other patterns disappearing with the
extinction of the other ampullinid genera.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Jacques Mouchart and Guy Varone (Bordeaux,
France) who kindly gave their material for this study. We thank Phi−
lippe Maestrati, Pierre Lozouet and Virginie Héros (MNHN) and Abel
Prieur (all University of Lyon1, Lyon, France) for access to the collec−
tions. Our thanks go also to Tomoki Kase (National Museum of Nature
and Science, Tokyo, Japan), Jonathan Hendricks (San Jose State Uni−
versity, San Jose, USA) and Jonathan Todd (Natural History Museum,
London, UK) for their careful review of the manuscript. The photo−
graphs have been taken by Christian Lemzaouda and Philippe Loubry
(both MNHN). This study was made possible thanks to the research
programs Plan Pluri Formation Etat et structure phylogénétique de la
biodiversité actuelle et fossile (Dir. P. Janvier, MNHN) subprogram
Atelier de terrain: biodiversité du gisement de la falunière de Grignon
(Dir. D. Merle, MNHN) and Patrimoine géologique (Dir. P. de Wever,
MNHN) subprogram Stratotype Lutétien (Dir. D. Merle).
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