Neothauma tanganyicense

Neothauma tanganyicense
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
(unranked):	clade Caenogastropoda informal group Architaenioglossa
Superfamily:	Viviparoidea
Family:	Viviparidae
Genus:	Neothauma E. A. Smith, 1880[2]
Species:	N. tanganyicense
Binomial name
Neothauma tanganyicense E. A. Smith, 1880[2]

Neothauma tanganyicense is a species of freshwater snail with a gill and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusc in the family Viviparidae.

This is the only species in the genus Neothauma.^[3][4]

Distribution

It is only found in Lake Tanganyika, where it is the largest gastropod, and occurs in all four of the bordering countries — Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia — although fossil shells have been discovered at Lake Edward and in the Lake Albert basin.^[1]

The type locality is the East shore of Lake Tanganyika, at Ujiji.^[4]

Description

The width of the shell is 46 mm.^[4] The height of the shell is 60 mm.^[4]

Ecology

It lives in depth up to 65 m.^[4]

The shells of dead Neothauma tanganyicense often form carpets over large areas, and are used by a number of other animals, such as cichlid fish,^[5] and freshwater crabs of the genus Platythelphusa.^[6] Juvenile snails live in the sediment to avoid predators.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} F. Nicayenzi, C. Ngereza & C. N. Lange (2004). Neothauma tanganyicense. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on August 7, 2007.
2. ^ ^{a b} Smith E. A. (1880). "On the shells of Lake Tanganyika and of the neighbourhood of Ujiji, central Africa". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1880: 344-352. Page 349. Plate 31.
3. ^ Mita E. Sengupta, Thomas K. Kristensen, Henry Madsen & Aslak Jørgensen (2009). "Molecular phylogenetic investigations of the Viviparidae (Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda) in the lakes of the Rift Valley area of Africa". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52 (3): 797–805. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2009.05.007. PMID 19435609. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Brown D. S. (1994). Freshwater Snails of Africa and their Medical Importance. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0 7484 0026 5.
5. ^ Stephan Koblmüller, Nina Duftner, Kristina M Sefc, Mitsuto Aibara, Martina Stipacek, Michel Blanc, Bernd Egger & Christian Sturmbauer (2007). "Reticulate phylogeny of gastropod-shell-breeding cichlids from Lake Tanganyika — the result of repeated introgressive hybridization". BMC Evolutionary Biology 7: 7. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-7-7. PMC 1790888. PMID 17254340. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/7/7. 
6. ^ N. Cumberlidge, R. von Sternberg, I. R. Bills & H. Martin (1999). "A revision of the genus Platythelphusa A. Milne-Edwards, 1887 from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa (Decapoda: Potamoidea: Platythelphusidae)". Journal of Natural History 33: 1487–1512. doi:10.1080/002229399299860. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/tnah/1999/00000033/00000010/art00005.