Olivella nivea nivea (Gmelin, 1791)

"Shell slender, svelte, regularly ovate. Spire high, symmetrical, rather sharply tapered, about half the total length of the shell. Whorls seven in all, two of them forming the smooth hyaline nucleus. Initial nuclear whorl small and indistinct, the last convex, grading insensibly into the first whorl of the conch, the nucleus defined from the conch by a change in shell texture. The first post-nuclear whorl or two is flat-sided, the later ones gently convex, increasing rapidly in height. Sutures channeled, the summit of the succeeding whorl being level with the middle of the antecedent sutural channel. Aperture subtriangular, widest below. Outer lip not thickened, smooth within, the gutter at the commissure deep and narrow. Columella obtusely angulated along the apertural margin, the pillar a little twisted. Parietal wall with a neat, well-defined thinnish coat of callus starting at the penultimate suture and continuing down the body, the distal margin of the callus nearly parallel with the side of the whorl to about the middle of the inner lip, swerving there from to the left and then descending between the fasciole and pillar. Columella with two or three feeble, obliquely curved, short lirae, the posteriormost more or less in line with the top of the fasciolar band. Fasciolar band wide, the posterior edge slightly raised, terminating against the callus of the parietal wall. The fasciolar area is divided into two vague segments, the upper one constituting the flat fasciolar band, the lower segment slightly thickened. Pillar composed of several folds, the lowest of these being the largest and the only one that continues into the aperture. The columella above this fold or ridge is broadly depressed into a shallow trough. Lower lip consists of a biplicate fold which is smaller than the basal columellar ridge above, and is separated from it by a deep narrow groove. Siphonal notch shallow and broad. Surface of body whorl with numerous fine gently curved axial lineations extending from the suture to the fasciolar band. These lineations appear on the body whorl only, the preceding whorls being polished. Dimensions. Holotype, length 16 mm.; max. width 6 mm.". Pliocene. Lower Mare formation, W of Quebrada Mare Abajo, Venezuela.