Pebasiconcha immanis
| Pebasiconcha immanis | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Langhium to Tortonium | ||||||||||||
| 15.97 to 7.246 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
|
Pebas Formation, Colombia; Peru |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Pebasiconcha | ||||||||||||
| Wesselingh & Gittenberger , 1999 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Pebasiconcha immanis | ||||||||||||
| Wesselingh & Gittenberger , 1999 |
Pebasiconcha immanis (synonym: Amazoniconcha immanis ) is a fossil land snail species from the Acavidae familywithin the order of thepulmonate snails (Pulmonata). She lived from the Middle Miocene to the Lower Upper Miocene in the western Amazon basin .
The two largest cases of Pebasiconcha immanis have heights of 22 centimeters and 25 centimeters, respectively. This taxon is thus the largest known fossil land snail species. The first housing was discovered in 1991 in the Pebas Formation in Colombia . It was photographed in situ but broke into several pieces during transport. In 1996 an undamaged specimen was purchased in a tourism store in Iquitos , Peru, which also comes from the Pebas formation. Both cases are kept in the Naturalis Museum in Leiden . There are also smaller fragments of lignite deposits in Peru.
The case turns are very large, but the grown mouth is clearly compressed. Behind the top of the outer lip is a massive nub on the outside of the case.
The size of Pebasiconcha immanis suggests that it was a ground dweller. On the other hand, the nature of the deposits in which the species was found suggests that the habitat was originally a large lake with swamps and swamp forests. Therefore, it is not unlikely that this species spent at least part of its life in trees.
literature
- Frank P. Wesselingh: Molluscs from the Miocene Pebas Formation of Peruvian and Colombian Amazonia In: Scripta Geologica, 133: 19-290, Leiden, November 2006 ISSN 0375-7587
- Frank P. Wesselingh & Edmund Gittenberger: The giant Amazonian snail (Pulmonata: Acavidae) beats them all . In: The Veliger, 42: 67-71, Berkeley 1999 ISSN 0042-3211