Volvulella lanceolata
Volvulella lanceolata
View age-specific evidence and explanation
There are no currently eligible, unambiguously age-indexed published Occurrences for this Species. This does not indicate absence or rarity.
These counts describe published LBPS Occurrence records with directly assigned, unambiguous geological-unit mappings—not specimen abundance. Records at restricted Localities and ambiguous or unsupported ages are excluded. Species-level age labels are not used as proof of an age-specific Occurrence.
Specimen-based rarity requires comparable, correctly identified physical fossils, geological provenance and publication permissions. It does not estimate your chance of finding a fossil or collecting access.
Quick Identification
Look for: a tiny olive- to lance-shaped shell with the spire hidden in an apical slit, a posterior beak projecting beyond the apex, deep unequal spiral grooves concentrated toward the ends, and a very narrow aperture that widens anteriorly.
Summary
Volvulella lanceolata was a minute headshield snail that probably moved through or across the uppermost soft sediment of the London Clay seabed. Living members of the group are mobile benthic animals, so this species was likely an active feeder rather than a permanently fixed or suspension-feeding mollusc.
Its exact prey is not preserved, but comparison with related headshield snails suggests that it probably took very small benthic animals. At only a few millimetres long, it occupied a tiny-predator niche within the sediment-surface community.
Diagnostic Features
- The last whorl envelops the shell, with the spire concealed at the bottom of a narrow apical slit.
- The shell is more attenuated posteriorly than anteriorly and ends posteriorly in a projecting rostrum.
- Deep, spaced and unequal spiral striae become more closely set around the anterior umbilical slit.
- The aperture is extremely narrow posteriorly but widens anteriorly to a rounded, unnotched end.
- The columellar margin is thick and twisted, partly reflected over the umbilical slit and bearing one median fold.
Fossil Details
Similar Species
Recorded Fossil Sites
No fossil-site occurrences have yet been recorded for this species.
References
- Jeffery, P.; Tracey, S. (1997). The Early Eocene London Clay Formation mollusc fauna of the former Bursledon Brickworks, Lower Swanwick, Hampshire. Tertiary Research, 17(3–4), 75–137 View reference