A new species of Umbilia Jousseaume, 1884 (Mollusca, Cypraeidae) from the Pliocene fauna of the Roe Plains, Western Australia

Abstract

A new morphologically distinct species of cowry (family Cypraeidae Rafinesque, 1815) is described from the Late Pliocene Roe Calcarenite of the Roe Plains, Western Australia. Previously assigned to Umbilia hesitata (Iredale, 1916), the new species differs morphometrically from related taxa and is differentiated from U. hesitata by a number of shell features including a prominent, projecting protoconch, less extended posterior and anterior terminals, coarser columellar teeth extending onto the base, and well-developed, thickened anterior flanges, supporting a rounded anterior extremity with blunt anterior tips. Umbilia tomdarraghi sp. nov. is the third Umbilia species to be described from the Pliocene.