The oldest cowrie – an early African immigrant to Italy?

Cowries (Cypraeidae) comprise approximately 400 living species and subspecies, and have a rich Cenozoic and very sparse Cretaceous fossil record. Today, we often associate their glossy, colourful shells with the tropical Indo-Pacific, where most of their modern diversity is located. However, the oldest Cypraeidae are known from Europe, from the island of Sicily (Italy). During a visit to the Museo di Geologia ‘G. G. Gemmellaro’ in Palermo, we ‘re-discovered’ the type material of Cypraea tithonica, which had been considered lost. The species was established by Giovanni Di Stefano in 1882, together with a second species, Cypraea gemmellaroi, the type of which is still missing. The specimens come from an isolated limestone outcrop at Termini Imerese, which is Early Tithonian in age, and part of a series of structural domains formerly located on the African continental margin, which were obducted onto the European part of Sicily. With a wink, the coffee-bean-shaped Cypraea tithonica could thus be considered an early African immigrant to Italy. Cowries are conspicuous in having a convolute shell, with the last whorl overgrowing all previous whorls, and a narrowly elongate, slit-like aperture. The type material of Cypraea tithonica has never been re-studied since its initial description in the late 19th century. The shells generally have the typical morphology of modern cypraeids, but differ sufficiently from younger taxa to represent a new genus (to be described). The new Cypraeidae genus and the genus Columbellaria from the Late Jurassic of Central Europe are the oldest gastropods that share a slit-like aperture. This feature has been interpreted as a – probably convergent – anti-predatory adaptation, which evolved in the course of the Mesozoic Marine Revolution.