Tonna tankervillii

Taxobox
name = "Tonna tankervillii"


image_caption = "Tonna tankervillii" found on northern New Zealand beach.
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
ordo = Neotaenioglossa
familia = Tonnidae
genus = "Tonna"
species = "T. tankervillii"
binomial = "Tonna tankervillii"
binomial_authority = (Hanley, 1860)
synonyms = "Tonna cerevisina" Hedley, 1919

"Tonna tankervillii" is a very large species of sea snail or tun snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tonnidae, the tun shells.

Distribution

This species is found in Australia, from Torres Strait in the north, down the east coast, and also on the north east coast of New Zealand.

hell description

This globose shell is very large and thin, sculptured with broad flattened spiral corrugations, separated by narrow unsculptured grooves. The coloration is variable, pale cream or pinkish-buff to bright orange-brown, variously maculated in reddish-brown to purplish-brown, usually concentrated towards the upper suture, but often sparsely scattered over the body whorl as well. In live specimens the whole shell is covered by a thin yellowish periostracum.

The shell height is up to 23 cm, and width 19 cm.

References

* Powell A. W. B., William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
* [http://zipcodezoo.com/Key/Tonnidae_Family.asp ZipCodeZoo]