Calliostoma annulatum
Calliostoma annulatum, also known as the purple-ring topsnail, blue-ring topsnail or jeweled topsnail, is a medium-sized sea snail with gills and an operculum.

Steve Lonhart (SIMoN / MBNMS) · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- purple ringed top shellPBDB
- Sits inside
- CalliostomaPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Calliostoma
- Life habit
- epifaunalPBDB, for Calliostoma
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Calliostoma
- Vision
- limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda
Time the record covers
At least 2.4 million years on record.
The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.
19 occurrences of Calliostoma annulatum on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
19 occurrences- Pliocene9%
- Pleistocene91%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
9 formations
- Careaga Sandstone Formation4
- Timms Point Silt Formation3
- San Pedro Formation2
- Lomita Marl Formation2
- Fernando Formation1
- Pico Formation1
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Calliostoma annulatum has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Calliostoma annulatum and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Calliostoma annulatum and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
523 taxa- Turritella cooperi9 sites
- Dallocardia quadragenarium8 sites
- Mitrella tuberosa8 sites
- Acteocina culcitella7 sites
- Caesia perpinguis7 sites
- Chlamys hastata7 sites
- Dentalium neohexagonum7 sites
- Glossaulax reclusiana7 sites
- Hima cooperi7 sites
- Hima mendica7 sites
- Mitrella gausapata7 sites
- Saccella taphria7 sites
- Amphissa versicolor6 sites
- Californiconus californicus6 sites
- Calliostoma ligatum6 sites
- Crepidula nummaria6 sites
- Megasurcula carpenteriana6 sites
- Nutricola tantilla6 sites
- Parvilucina tenuisculpta6 sites
- Caecum crebricinctum5 sites
- Callianax biplicata5 sites
- Calliostoma canaliculatum5 sites
- Cryptonatica affinis5 sites
- Cumingia californica5 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Calliostoma annulatum, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
11 references- Geology and paleontology of the Santa Maria District California4
- Geology and Paleontology of Palos Verdes Hills, California3
- The cool-water Timms Point Pleistocene horizon at San Pedro, California3
- Age and paleoenvironmental significance of mega-invertebrates from the "San Pedro" Formation in the Coyote Hills, Fullerton and Buena Park, Orange County, Southern California2
- On the reconciliation of biostratigraphy and strontium isotope stratigraphy of three southern Californian Plio-Pleistocene formations1
- Paleontology and stratigraphy of some marine Pleistocene deposits in northwest Los Angeles Basin, California1
- Report on Pleistocene Molluscan Fauna at Capistrano Beach, Orange County, Calif1
- Geology and Paleontology of a Portion of Los Angeles, California1
- Geology of the eastern part of the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles County, California1
- The Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of San Pedro, California1
- Catalogue of Californian fossils1
Each of the 19 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Calliostoma annulatum
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Steve Lonhart (SIMoN / MBNMS)
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Calliostoma annulatum was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itCalliostoma through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Lightfoot 1786)