TAXONOMY 



The oyster drill of western Atlantic coastal waters has been known by a 

 confusing list of scientific names: Fusus cinereus S ay, Buccinum plicosum Menke, 

 Buccinum cinereum Gould, Urosalpinx cinerea (Say), and Urosalpinx cinereus Say. 

 Say(T822) first described this snail, giving it the name Fusus cinereus Say. 

 Later Stimpson (1865) created the genus Urosalpinx in the family Muricidae, in- 

 cluded Fusus cinereus Say as type, and called it Urosalpinx cinerea (Say) . The 

 latter is the proper form of the specific name; since " Urosalpinx" is feminine, 

 the adjectival specific name " cinerea " must agree in gender (Int, Code Zoo! . Nomen., 

 Art. 14a, 1926, in_ Schenk and McMasters, 1948). The Family Muricidae has been 

 placed m the order Neogastropoda, Subclass Prosobranchia, Class Gastropoda 

 (Abbott, 1954). 



Say's type drill is probably the small form, rather than the giant one, 

 since his measurement of the type is approximately 32 mm., and probably came 

 from Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, where Say stated, that he had collected the 

 species (Pilsbry, pers. com.; Abbott, pers. com.), rather than from the eastern 

 shore of Maryland and Virginia where the giant form occurs (Henderson and Bartsch, . 

 1915; Baker, 1951). Unfortunately Say's type specimen of " Fusus " cinereus has been 

 lost and is thus not available for study (Pilsbry, pers. com.). 



All scientific names of mollusks used in this review are taken from the 

 nomenclature of Abbott (1954) . 



DISTRIBUTION 

 Fossil Distribution 



U. cinerea is not a recent product of evolution. The genus was probably 

 initiated as early as the Eocene (J. Gardner, 1948) some 60 million years ago. The 

 oldest shells of the species have been taken in North Carolina (Richards, pers com.) 

 and in Maryland (Verrill and Smith, 1874) in Miocene deposits approximately 28 

 million years old. Shells of the species are more abundant in Priocene deposits some 

 12 million years old of the Atlantic Coastal Plain in several localities in North 

 Carolina and in Florida (Richards, pers. com, ; 1947) and also in South Carolina 

 (Verrill & Smith, 1874). 



