earth science

Nassarius maccauslandi

Nassarius maccauslandi is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nassarius maccauslandi rather than just read about it. In short: Nassarius maccauslandi is a species of dog whelk, a marine mollusc, in the family Nassariidae. The species is found in tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean, including Fiji, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Key takeaways

Nassarius maccauslandi belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nassarius maccauslandi to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nassarius maccauslandi from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nassarius maccauslandi is a species of dog whelk, a marine mollusc, in the family Nassariidae. The species is found in tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean, including Fiji, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Description Nassarius maccauslandi has a shell up to 7 mm (0.28 in) in length. The shells are elongate-ovate, solid with a teleoconch of between 4 and 4.5 convex whorls, and a protoconch with glassy, finely carinate embryonic whorls numbering 3.75 to 4. The shells are grey with a golden sheen, and has spire whirls ornamented with two brown to purple-brown spirals. It can be distinguished from N. fraudulentus by having more embryonic whorls (compared to 2.25–2.75 in N. fraudulentus), two prominent sutural cords.

Taxonomy The species was first described in 1984 by Walter Oliver Cernohorsky, who used the name Nassarius (Plicarcularia) maccauslandi, placing the species in a subgenus named Plicarcularia, which is no longer accepted. The holotype, collected from Lami, Fiji in September 1978, is kept at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand. The species was named after O. K. McCausland, who discovered the holotype.

Distribution and habitat The species is known from shallow water in islands of the Pacific Ocean and South East Asia, including Fiji, the Philippines, Indonesia (Ambon Island, Western New Guinea and Bali) and in Papua New Guinea.

Gallery

References

External links Nassarius (Plicarcularia) maccauslandi at conchology.be

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nassarius maccauslandi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nassarius maccauslandi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nassarius maccauslandi before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nassarius maccauslandi ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nassarius maccauslandi

In research: Nassarius maccauslandi appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nassarius maccauslandi in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nassarius maccauslandi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Gastropods described in 1984, Gastropods of Asia, Gastropods of Oceania, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nassarius maccauslandi outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nassarius maccauslandi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nassarius maccauslandi means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nassarius maccauslandi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nassarius maccauslandi in simple terms?

Why does Nassarius maccauslandi matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nassarius maccauslandi?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nassarius maccauslandi.