Amoria damonii | |
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Apertural view of a shell of Amoria damonii | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
Order: | Neogastropoda |
Family: | Volutidae |
Genus: | Amoria |
Subgenus: | Amoria |
Species: | A. damonii
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Binomial name | |
Amoria damonii Gray, 1864
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Synonyms[1] | |
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Amoria damonii, common name Damon's volute, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Volutidae, the volutes.[1] It forms a complex of attractive, large shells which has been studied extensively by Abbottsmith.[2][3]
It was named in honor of English conchologist Robert Damon (1814–1889).[4]
According to Bail et al. (2001) the following taxa can be differentiated:
Amoria damonii has a large size that varies between 75 and 140 mm.[5] The protoconch is glossy, domed, white on the early whorls, tawny later. The spire is conical with a deep-set suture.
The Amoria damonii complex includes four large, evidently correlated populations of Amoria, whose distribution extends from Cape Leeuwin (S.W. Australia) to the northern east coast of Queensland,[5][6][7][8] i.e. for more than 6,500 km of coastline. Such a large range, rare in Volutidae, is even more unusual for an Amoria. This long stretch of coastline implies genetic differentiation and favours polytypism, giving rise to many taxonomic problems.
These marine gastropod molluscs occur in tropical zones on continental shelf, intertidal and subtidal waters, at depths of 0 to 90 m.[9]
His name also survives in the scientific names given to several invertebrate species, recent and fossil, including the volute now known as Amoria damonii Gray, and Paramelania damoni Smith, a freshwater gastropod from Lake Tanganyika.