I just received a beautiful colony of "Serpulorbis" ?roussaei
(Vaillant 1871). The irregular brown spiral lines of "S" roussaei are
rather more distinct than those of any of my tangle, and mine may be
a different species in the same genus. A broken shell reveals septa.

The genus is the main problem... Serpulorbis lacks an operculum. my
shells do not... several tubes contain dried animals with concave
light-brown opercs. Anyone know where these species belong?

They are not Petaloconchus, as that genus displays periodic breaks
where up/outturned feeding tubes break off and growth resumes. Um...
having said that, I now see a couple of such scars... so maybe they
are Petaloconchus.

Vermetidae taxonomy is a mess... and they may actually belong in
Ptenoglossa, with Epitoniidae etc.

Anyone know for sure?
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<[log in to unmask]>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

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