A new land snail from the Quaternary of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean): Darderia bellverica n. gen., n. sp. (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Helicodontidae)

Abstract

A new genus and species of land snail is described from pre-human paleosoils at Bellver hill in the island of Mallorca. It is a medium-sized helicodontid with 6 tight coils, dome-shaped spire, obtuse peripheral keel, eccentric umbilicus, narrow aperture inclined forward, sinuous reflected peristome, a low angular tooth, 5 infrapalatal denticles, teleoconch with many regular riblets and widely scattered hair pits, and protoconch with simple wrinkles and very thin spiral lines. This very rare species had been reported as a member of the Iberian-Maghribian Oestophora. Similar Plio-Pleistocene fossils from the Balearics and Sardinia are placed in the new genus. This may constitute a biogeographic link within the Lindholmiolinae, now surviving at both ends of the Mediterranean basin. It remains unknown when, why or whether it became extinct.