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Plaxiphora Caelata
''Plaxiphora caelata'' is a small chiton in the family Mopaliidae, endemic to the main islands of New Zealand, Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands. Description and habitat A cryptic species up to 45 millimetres long but usually 20-25 millimetres, the shape and colour of the valves is highly variable. Head valve has eight ribs crossed by chevroned wrinkles, median valves a single radial rib on each side, with the tiny tail valve almost triangular. All are cream to dull grey-green coloured with streaks or blotches of dark green, brown, orange or white. The leathery girdle is wide at the sides and narrow at both ends, often with short bristles, usually dark brown with lighter blotches. In the North Island the dorsal surface is sometimes covered in filamentous algae. Like other members of the genus it favours open rock surfaces on wave exposed shores, in crevices or at the base of shaded overhangs in the low intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lovell Augustus Reeve
Lovell Augustus Reeve (19 April 1814 – 18 November 1865) was an English conchologist and publisher. Life Born at Ludgate Hill, London, on 19 April 1814, he was a son of Thomas Reeve, draper and mercer, by his wife Fanny Lovell. After attending school at Stockwell, he was apprenticed at the age of 13 to Mr. Graham, a local grocer. The chance of purchase of some shells led to a lifelong interest in conchology. In 1833 he attended the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Cambridge. At the end of his apprenticeship Reeve paid a visit to Paris, where he read a paper on the classification of Mollusca before the Academy of Sciences. On his return to London, he set to work on his first book, ''Conchologia Systematica'' (2 vols. London, 1841–2). From 1842, he traded as a natural history dealer. Using profits made by the sale of Dutch Governor-General of the Moluccas Van Ryder's collection from the Moluccas, which he purchased at Rotterdam, and with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chiton
Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora (), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized. They are also sometimes known as gumboots or sea cradles or coat-of-mail shells or suck-rocks, or more formally as loricates, polyplacophorans, and occasionally as polyplacophores. Chitons have a shell composed of eight separate shell plates or valves. These plates overlap slightly at the front and back edges, and yet articulate well with one another. Because of this, the shell provides protection at the same time as permitting the chiton to flex upward when needed for locomotion over uneven surfaces, and even allows the animal to curl up into a ball when dislodged from rocks. The shell plates are encircled by a skirt known as a girdle. Habitat Chitons live worldwide, from cold waters through to the tropics. They live on hard surfaces, such as on or under rocks, or in rock crevices. Some species live quite h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mopaliidae
Mopaliidae is a family of marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora. Genera There are 10 recognized genera: * '' Amicula'' Gray, 1847 * '' Dendrochiton'' Berry, 1911 * '' Gallardochiton'' Sirenko, 2007 * '' Katharina'' Gray, 1847 * '' Mopalia'' Gray, 1847 * '' Mopaliella'' Thiele, 1909 * ''Nuttallochiton'' Plate, 1899 * ''Placiphorella'' Dall, 1879 * '' Placiphorina'' Kaas & Van Belle, 1994 * ''Plaxiphora ''Plaxiphora'' is a genus of chitons in the family Mopaliidae. Species * ''Plaxiphora albida'' ( Blainville, 1825) * '' Plaxiphora atlantica'' * ''Plaxiphora aurata'' (Spalowsky 1795) * '' Plaxiphora aurea'' * ''Plaxiphora australis'' Suter, ...'' Gray, 1847 (synonym '' Maorichiton'' Iredale, 1914) References Mollusc families Chitons Taxa named by William Healey Dall {{chiton-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the List of island countries, sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's Capital of New Zealand, capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ) ( Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about ten islands within an approximate radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island (Rangiauria). They include New Zealand's easternmost point, the Forty-Fours. Some of the islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as nature reserves to conserve some of the unique flora and fauna. The islands were uninhabited when the Moriori people arrived around 1500 CE and developed a peaceful way of life. In 1835 members of the Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori iwi from the North Island of New Zealand invaded the islands and nearly exterminated the Moriori, enslaving the survivors. Later during the period of European colonisation of New Zealand, the New Zealand Company claimed that the British Crown had never ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valve (mollusc)
A valve is each articulating part of the shell of a mollusc or another multi-shelled animal such as brachiopods and some crustaceans. Each part is known as a valve or in the case of chitons, a "plate". Members of two classes of molluscs, the Bivalvia (clams) and the Polyplacophora (chitons), have valves. Species within one family of very unusual small sea snails, marine opisthobranch gastropods in the family Juliidae, also have two articulating shells or valves, which resemble those of a bivalve. This exceptional family is commonly known as the bivalved gastropods. Gastropods in general are sometimes called "univalves", because in those that have a shell, the shell is usually in one part. Chitons The valves of chitons are eight dorsal, articulated shell plates, which are frequently coloured and sculpted. After death the girdle that holds the plates together disintegrates and the plates separate. Thus individual plates can be found washed up in beach drift, as shown i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intertidal Zone
The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species of life, such as seastars, sea urchins, and many species of coral with regional differences in biodiversity. Sometimes it is referred to as the '' littoral zone'' or '' seashore'', although those can be defined as a wider region. The well-known area also includes steep rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, bogs or wetlands (e.g., vast mudflats). The area can be a narrow strip, as in Pacific islands that have only a narrow tidal range, or can include many meters of shoreline where shallow beach slopes interact with high tidal excursion. The peritidal zone is similar but somewhat wider, extending from above the highest tide level to below the lowest. Organisms in the intertidal zone are adapted to an environment of harsh extremes, living in w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
