Taniella motutaraensis is an extinct species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc, in the family Naticidae. Fossils of the species date to early Miocene strata of the west coast of the Auckland Region, New Zealand.
In the original description, Powell described the species as follows:
The holotype of the species measures in height and in diameter. The species can be identified due to having a prominent tubercule on its parietal callus, as well as the umbilicus being completely filled.
The species was first described by A. W. B. Powell in 1935 as Polinices motutaraensis. It was moved to the Taniella subgenus Pristinacca in 1966 by Charles Alexander Fleming. Its currently accepted name is Taniella motutaraensis, without a subgenus.
The holotype was collected at an unknown date prior to 1935 from the southern end of Maukatia Bay, south of Muriwai, Auckland Region (then more commonly known as Motutara), and is held in the collections of Auckland War Memorial Museum.
This extinct marine species occurs in early Miocene strata of the Nihotupu Formation of New Zealand, on the west coast of the WaitÃÂkere Ranges of the Auckland Region, New Zealand. The Powell Bay site deposits of the Nihotupu Formation in the western WaitÃÂkere Ranges are mid-bathyal .