Conchocele sp.

Conchocele sp.

Fig. 17A View Fig .

Material.— One valve, SMF373083 About SMF . Northern Indian Ocean, Krishna-Godavari Basin , Bay of Bengal, offshore eastern India, 15°51.6335’ N, 81°50.2274’ E, 1046 m water depth, 16.88 mbsf level, core NGHP-01-12A; Upper Pleistocene. For additional material see Table 1 GoogleMaps .

Description.—Medium-sized, solid, subcircular, thyasirid shell, inequivalve, equilateral. Large protruding umbo directed anteriorly, posteriorly two keeled radial ridges with sharp intermediate channel. Sculpture of coarse irregular growth lines and margins, a small semi-circular lunule and a long deep escutcheon demarcated by a sharp ridge. Hinge with elongated grooves both anteriorly and posteriorly. Length of largest incomplete valve 29 mm

Remarks.—We refrain from formally naming this species based on the small number of fragmentary specimens. Our species is similar to the Miocene Conchocele majimai Kiel et al., 2020 , and Conchocele visayaensis Kiel et al., 2020 , from the Philippines ( Kiel et al. 2020); both these species have a large keeled area surrounding the lunule anteriorly; the lunule in our species is small without a surrounding demarcated area. Another similar thyasirid species is Ascetoaxinus ravichandrani Ravinesh et al., 2024 , that was described off Tamil Nadu, southern India, depth 1007–1038 m. This species has narrow sulci placed more posteriorly and its lunule is demarcated by a coarsely sculptured margin ( Ravinesh et al. 2024: figs. 3–5). Our species has broader sulci starting immediately behind the umbo and the demarcation of the lunule is smooth. Since we have only few fragmentary shells, we cannot rule out that the species belongs in the genus Ascetoaxinus Oliver & Frey, 2014 .