Astralium phoebium, common name

Common name

A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

 the longspine starsnail, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of medium-sized sea snail

Snail

Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

, a marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinidae

Turbinidae

Turbinidae, the turban snails, are a family of small to large marine gastropods. Turbinidae have a strong, thick calcareous operculum readily distinguishing them from the somewhat similar Trochidae or top snails, which have a corneous operculum...

, the turban snails.

Distribution

This is a tropical Western Atlantic species.

Distribution of Astralium phoebium include: Aruba, Belize, Bonaire, Caribbean Sea, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Gulf of Mexico, Jamaica, Lesser Antilles, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, San Andres and Venezuela.

External links

• http://www.gastropods.com/3/Shell_323.shtml