Rubyspira

Rubyspira is a genus of deep water sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks unclassified in the family within the superfamily Abyssochrysoidea.^[1]

Rubyspira
Shell of Rubyspira from São Paulo Ridge
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda
Superfamily:	Abyssochrysoidea
Family:	unassigned[1]
Genus:	Rubyspira Johnson, Warén, Lee, Kano, Kaim, Davis, Strong & Vrijenhoek, 2010[1]
Diversity[1]
2 species

Distribution

They are known from Monterey Bay, California.^[1]

Species

Species within the genus Rubyspira include:

• Rubyspira goffrediae Johnson, Warén, Lee, Kano, Kaim, Davis, Strong & Vrijenhoek, 2010^[1]
• Rubyspira osteovora Johnson, Warén, Lee, Kano, Kaim, Davis, Strong & Vrijenhoek, 2010 - type species of the genus Rubyspira^[1]
• Rubyspira from São Paulo Ridge (undescribed species)^[2]

Ecology

They are specialized bone-eating snails on whale falls.^[1] They were found on carcass of gray whale.^[1] Their main food source are bones of whales.^[1]

References

1. Johnson S. B., Warén A., Lee R. W., Kano Y., Kaim A., Davis A., Strong E. E. & Vrijenhoek R. C. (2010). "Rubyspira, new genus and two new species of bone-eating deep-sea snails with ancient habits". The Biological Bulletin 219(2): 166-177. HTML.
2. Sumida P. Y. G., Alfaro-Lucas J. M., Shimabukuro M., Kitazato H., Perez J. A. A., Soares-Gomes A., Toyofuku T., Lima A. O. S., Ara K. & Fujiwara Y. (2016). "Deep-sea whale fall fauna from the Atlantic resembles that of the Pacific Ocean". Scientific Reports 6: Article number: 22139. doi:10.1038/srep22139.