A mid-Cretaceous land snail Burminella artiukhini gen. et sp. nov. from Burmese amber: a "missing link" between Pupinidae and other Cyclophoroidea? (Caenogastropoda).

A new species of a new genus, Burminella artiukhini , from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (ca. 99-98 Ma), is described in the family Pupinidae. This land snail possesses intermediate characters between the latter group and some other families of Cyclophoroidea. The shell of B. artiukhini is relatively high and has 8.5 whorls, which places it more closely to known genera of Pupinidae. But it differs from all other genera of the family by the oblique aperture and relatively wide conical shell, the characters common in many Cyclophoridae, Neocyclotidae and Alycaeidae. It means that B. artiukhini is possibly representing a morphological group that was ancestral to all other Pupinidae and, therefore, was transitional between this family and other Cyclophoroidea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]