Latouchella is an extinct genus of marine invertebrate animal, that is considered to be a mollusk and which may be a sea snail, a gastropod. It is a helcionellid from the Fortunian-Guzhangian ages of the Cambrian. Fossils of this animal have been reported from Siberia, Mongolia, China, Greenland, Canada, USA, England, Spain, Morocco, Australia and New Zealand.
Description[]
This genus had a curved, segmented shell, and it is often reconstructed as a snail-like creature.
Its tightly-coiled, spiral shell contains a number of low "walls" running up the front surface of the interior; these would have directed water currents within its shell. Between these walls are a series of furrows, parallel to the shell's aperture, giving casts of the internal structure the appearance of a railway line, with sleepers (created by furrows) tying together paired rails that run towards the apex of the shell.
Taxonomy[]
Older taxonomy[]
The taxonomy of the genus Latouchella was originally like this: class Helcionelloida, order Helcionellida, superfamily Helcionelloidea, family Helcionellidae.
2005 taxonomy[]
The taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005[2] categorizes Latouchella in the family Coreospiridae in the superfamilia Scenelloidea within the Paleozoic molluscs of uncertain systematic position. Latouchella was a type genus in the family Latouchellidae Golikov & Starobogatov, 1989, however Latouchellidae is a synonym of Coreospiridae.
2006-2007 taxonomy[]
The 2006-2007 taxonomy of the genus Latouchella is like this: class Helcionelloida, subclass Archaeobranchia, order Helcionelliformes, superfamily Helcionelloidea, family Coreospiridae.