Dear friends
There is a couple of very interesting articles by Rolan & Raybaudi in
which a comparison between the radular teeth of conidae, turridae and
Conorbis is made. The radular tooth in conorbiinae is essentially similar
to that in conidae, but different from turridae. Conorbis re-absorb the
inner walls of their shell as in Conus, and at variance with turridae
(i.e. Genota). It is likely that Conorbis represent an evolutionary
missing link between conidae and turridae.
Furthermore, only two species of Conorbis are extant (living) as far as I
am aware of, namely Conorbis coromandelicus and more recently, Conorbis
adami. However, there is a much larger record of fossil species attributed
to Conorbis. In fact, the genus is introduced as: Conorbis Swainson, 1840
in "A Treatise on Malacology, p. 312". The type species for this genus is
C. dormiter Sowerby I [= C. dormitor Solander in Brander, 1766], an Eocene
fossil from Europe (Hampshire, England). As a conclusion, Conorbis appears
much closer to Conidae (specially to certain species such as C.
teramachii, C. profundorum or C. smirna) than to Turridae. I don't know if
the most recent adscription in 2005 of Conorbis to Conidae is based in
genetic (DNA) studies, since I haven't read the paper.
I have also heard that Conorbis is a fossil genus and that the two extant
species should belong to a different genus. Somebody has any information
on this?
Warmest regards

Manuel Jimenez Tenorio

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