 The currently accepted combination, "Semicassis granulata", was proposed by New Zealand paleontologist Alan Beu, based on paleontological data.There is a similar-looking species, "Semicassis undulata", which lives in the Mediterranean Sea and the Macaronesian Islands, parts of the northeastern Atlantic.In 1791, that sea snail was given the specific name "undulata" by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin.