Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 127, July 2015, pp. 1-8. | Página 5

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sometimes treated as an order, although they are a clade in Bouchet and Rocroi,
2005 (Wikipedia).
Vetigastropods are considered to be among the most primitive living gastropods,
and are widely distributed in all oceans of the world. Their habitats range from
the deep sea to intertidal zones. Many have shells with slits or other secondary
openings. One of their main characteristics is the presence of intersected crossed
platy shell structure. Most vetigastropods have some bilateral asymmetry of their
organ systems (Wikipedia).

Discohelix was named as a genus in 1847 by Wilhelm Bernhard Rudolph Hadrian
Dunker (1809-1885), a German natural scientist with interests in geology, paleontology
and marine zoology. Like so many 19th Century paleontologists, Dunker started with a
practical training in mining engineering and then followed a passion for fossils and
modern shells. He had a huge collection of materials that eventually ended up in the
Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. He traded and corresponded with many top scientists
of his day, including Charles Darwin. He also published many monographs on modern
and fossil molluscan taxa. In 1846, he and Hermann von Meyer established the journal
“Palaeontographica”. This journal survives to this day in two descendants:
“Palaeontographica A” (Paleozoology, Stratigraphy) and “Palaeontographica B”
(Paleobotany) (Wilson, 2013).
http://woostergeologists.scotblogs.wooster.edu/files/2013/07/Dunker.jpg

Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 127 – July 2015