The genus Cypraeopsis was so far known from two species in the Miocene of Europe and South-East Asia. An unnamed species is here recorded from the upper Oligocene of France and C. superstes sp. nov. is described from the Recent bathayal fauna of New Caledonia and Reunion. C. superstes differs from the fossil species by the body whorl being spirally sculptured, by the outer lip undulating as in Pedicularia, and by the protruding uncovered protoconch, a character tentatively interpreted as progenetic. C. superstes thus appears paradoxically as an evolved relic.
The genus Cypraeopsis was so far known from two species in the Miocene of Europe and South-East Asia. An unnamed species is here recorded from the upper Oligocene of France and C. superstes sp. nov. is described from the Recent bathayal fauna of New Caledonia and Reunion. C. superstes differs from the fossil species by the body whorl being spirally sculptured, by the outer lip undulating as in Pedicularia, and by the protruding uncovered protoconch, a character tentatively interpreted as progenetic. C. superstes thus appears paradoxically as an evolved relic.
Dolin, L. 1991. Mollusca Gastropoda: <em>Cypraeopsis superstes </em>sp. nov., Pediculariinae relique du bathyal de Nouvelle-Caledonie et de la Reunion. <em>Memoires du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle Serie A Zoologie</em>, 150: 179-186.