Margarites groenlandicus

Margarites groenlandicus
Margarites groenlandicus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Vetigastropoda
Superfamily: Trochoidea
Family: Turbinidae
Subfamily: Margaritinae
Genus: Margarites
Species: M. groenlandicus
Binomial name
Margarites groenlandicus
(Gmelin, 1791)
Synonyms[1]

Margarites undulata (G.B. Sowerby, I, 1838)

Margarites groenlandicus, common name the Greenland margarite or wavy top shell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails.[1]

There are two subspecies :

  • Margarites groenlandicus groenlandicus (Gmelin, 1791)
  • Margarites groenlandicus umbilicalis Broderip & Sowerby, 1829 (synonym : Margarites umbilicalis Broderip & Sowerby, 1829)

Contents

Description

The wavy top shell is thin-shelled and rather small with a maximum length of 1.9 cm (¾ inch) and a compressed spire. The color of the glossy shell is cream to brown. It contains 4-5 whorls, with the body whorl the largest. The sutures are wavy. The shell is smooth or with about 12 smooth spiral ridges. The broad umbilicus is funnel-shaped. The nacreous aperture is oval with the long axis inclined to the left. It is also prosocline, i.e. with the growth lines leaning forward (adapically) with respect to the direction of the cone. The outer lip is thin. The sexes are separate but seldom differ externally. They are at the same time hermaphrodites but self-fertilization is prevented by anatomical mechanisms. The species is a suspension or deposit feeder.

Distribution and habitat

This species is distributed across the Northern Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, the western coast of Norway, rarely along the British coast, the Gulf of Maine to Massachusetts Bay. It can be found from near the seashore to the bathyal zone.


References

  1. ^ a b Margarites groenlandicus (Gmelin, 1791).  Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=141820 on 20 April 2010.

External links


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