Olivella nana, common name the sparkling dwarf olive, is a species of small sea snail, marine gastropod mollusk in the subfamily Olivellinae, in the family Olividae, the olives.
Species in the genus Olivella are commonly called dwarf olives.
[4] Oliva nana Lamarck, 1811, described from the coast of Angola, was included in the genus Olivancillaria by Fischer (1887) and later cited by many authors in the same genus (e.g. Dautzenberg 1912, Odhner 1923, Nickles 1950, Klappenbach 1965, Burnay & Conceição 1983, etc.).
Abbott & Dance (1986) included it in Olivella, which appears to be a more accurate assignation.
There is some variation in the coloration in this species which changes from horn to white in some specimens at the point where the whorls of the protoconch and the teleoconch join.