Sinuites

Classification
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Bellerophontida
Family: Sinuitidae
Genus: Sinuites Koken, 1896
Cincinnatian Species: Sinuites cancellatus

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Synonyms: Discolites Emmons, 1855; Protowarthia Ulrich & Scofield, 1897
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Geologic Range
Ordovician

Common Paleoecology
Sinuites is an extinct genus of epifaunal detritivores

Identification in Hand Sample:

Lobelike lateral lips.
Tightly coiled shell.
Slit band absent.
Revolving striae as well as growth lines.
Lack of abruptly expanded aperture.

Geographic Occurrences

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Fossils of Ohio (1996):

Shell tightly coiled

Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part I, Mollusca 1 (1960):

Lateral lips lobelike, close to sides; bases of columellar lips surrounded by a delicate inductura.

McFarlan (1931):

This genus includes those forms which have commonly gone under the name of Protowarthia, a synonym. It is distinguished from Bellerophon in the absence of the slit band, in the lack of abruptly expanded aperture, and presence of revolving striae as well as growth lines.

Knight(1945):

In Sinuites a part of the ornamentation is developed on an inductural layer extending outside of the aperture very much as in Euphemites Warthin, (1930).

Wahlman, G.P(1989):

Diagnosis: Shell tightly coiled, convolute, umbilicus closed or very small; dorsum generally rounded, flattened somewhat in some cases, with dorsomedian ridge in very few; aperture large, generally longer than wide, with deep, rounded, median sinus and lateral margins projecting downward as rounded or subangular lobes; parietal deposits thin, ornamented in many cases; growth lines fine, closely spaced, in many cases intersected by faint revolving lines.
Discussion: Species of Sinuites described prior 1896-97 were generally assigned to Bellerophon. Koken (1896, p 392) erected the new genus Sinuites to contain European Ordovician species. Unaware of this new genus, Ulrich and Scofield (1897, p 848) proposed the genus Protowarthia for American species. Bassler (1915, p 1159) recognized the synonymy and the priority of Sinuites Koken and formally designated Bellerophon bilobatus Sowerby the type species of Sinuites .

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