Latouchella


Latouchella is an extinct genus of marine invertebrate animal, that is considered to be a mollusk and which may be a sea snail, a gastropod. It is a helcionellid from the Tommotian epoch of what is now Siberia. Its tightly-coiled, spiral shell contains a number of low "walls" running up the front surface of the interior; these would have directed water currents within its shell. Between these walls are a series of furrows, parallel to the shell's aperture, giving casts of the internal structure the appearance of a railway line, with sleepers tying together paired rails that run towards the apex of the shell.

Description

This genus had a curved, segmented shell, and it is often reconstructed as a snail-like creature.

Older taxonomy

The taxonomy of the genus Latouchella was originally like this: class Helcionelloida, order Helcionellida, superfamily Helcionelloidea, family Helcionellidae.

2005 taxonomy

The taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005 categorizes Latouchella in the family Coreospiridae in the superfamilia Scenelloidea within the
Paleozoic molluscs of uncertain systematic position.
Latouchella was a type genus in the family Latouchellidae Golikov & Starobogatov, 1989, however Latouchellidae is a synonym of Coreospiridae.

2006-2007 taxonomy

The 2006-2007 taxonomy of the genus Latouchella is like this: class Helcionelloida, subclass Archaeobranchia, order Helcionelliformes, superfamily Helcionelloidea, family Coreospiridae.

Species

Species in the genus Latouchella include: