Dissertation committee:
Κοσκερίδου Ευτέρπη, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Merle Didier, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (ΜΝΗΝ)
Aντωναράκου Ασημίνα, Kαθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Αναστασάκης Γεώργιος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Ρουσιάκης Σωκράτης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, τμήμα Γεωλογίας και Γεωπεριβάλλοντος, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Παρμακέλης Αριστείδης Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, τμήμα Βιολογίας, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Ρεϊζοπούλου Σοφία, Τακτική ερευνήτρια, Ελληνικό Κέντρο Θαλάσσιων Ερευνών (ΕΛ.ΚΕ.Θ.Ε.)
Summary:
Conidae is a diverse family of carnivorous marine gastropods. They rapidly diversified during the Miocene and now they inhabit tropical and subtropical seas. In this PhD project, the provision of the first inventory of fossil conids from the late Miocene of Crete (Greece) is attempted. This work deals with the genera Conilithes and Conus, the latter including the subgenera Kalloconus, Lautoconus, Plagioconus, Monteiroconus and Mioconus nov. subgen.. Using UV light, the residual colour patterns of thirty-three species are described, of which eleven are new: Conilithes herodus sp. nov., Conus (Kalloconus) helladicus sp. nov., Conus (Kalloconus) asterousiaensis sp. nov., Conus (Lautoconus) ictini sp. nov., Conus (Lautoconus) protopyrulus sp. nov., Conus (Lautoconus) delriei sp. nov., Conus (Lautoconus) dicteus sp. nov., Conus (Mioconus) nov. subgen. damianakisi sp. nov., Conus (Mioconus) nov. subgen. davolii sp. nov., Conus (Plagioconus) symeonidisi sp. nov. and Conus (Monteiroconus) pseudoneumayri sp. nov. Five species are in open nomenclature, of which one belongs to Conilithes and four belong to Conus (Lautoconus). Eleven species are first recorded in the late Miocene of Crete: Conilithes brezinae (Hoernes & Auinger, 1879), Conilithes striatulus (Brocchi, 1814), Conus (Kalloconus) neumayri Hoernes & Auinger, 1879, Conus (Kalloconus) hendricksi (Harzhauser & Landau, 2016), Conus (Kalloconus) gulemani Erünal-Erentöz, 1958, Conus (Kalloconus) letkesensis (Harzhauser & Landau 2016), Conus (Lautoconus) cf. baldichieri Borson, 1820, Conus (Mioconus) nov. subgen. cf. taurinensis (Bellardi & Michelotti, 1841), Conus (Plagioconus) aquensis (d’Orbigny, 1852), Conus (Monteiroconus) daciae (Hoernes & Auinger, 1879) and Conus (Monteiroconus) hoernesi (Doderlein, 1863). Summarising the results of this work, the importance of UV light in the description of fossil Conidae is discussed, as an evenly important characteristic with the shell morphology. The species richness for the Tortonian of Crete, Greece is evaluated as normal compared to recent data of tropical Conidae assemblages. Finally, with the help of UV light, the enhancement of the evolutionary history of the West African Conidae is achievable, by comparing extant species with those from Crete.
Keywords:
Crete Island, late Miocene, Conidae, ultraviolet light, new species
