MORPHOLOGY AND POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS OF ECPHORA (CENOZOIC GASTROPODA, MURICIDAE)

The muricid gastropod genus Ecphora Conrad, 1843, comprises Oligocene to Pliocene species from eastern North America and Oligocene to Middle Miocene species from Europe. Earlier workers speculated that it evolv ed in North America from an Early Oligocene Tritonopsis-like ancestor. Evidence from previously unstudied shell characters indicates that Ec phora belongs to the subfamily Ocenebrinae, whereas Tritonopsis is a s ubgenus of Cymia Morch, 1860, a member of the Rapaninae. Ecphora lacks the parietal rib, lirate outer lip, and adapical extension of the out er lip of Cymia and related genera, and may have been derived from an as yet unknown ocenebrine ancestor in which the external shell sculptu re was predominantly or exclusively spiral.