''Cavolinia tridentata'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

sea butterflies The Thecosomata (collective/plural: ''thecosomes'', meaning "case/shell-body"), or sea butterflies, are a taxonomic suborder of small, pelagic, free-swimming sea snails known as holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod mollusks, in the order ...

, floating and swimming

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

s or

sea slug Sea slug is a common name for some Marine biology, marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial Slug, slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are Sea snail, sea snails (marine gastropod moll ...

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

marine

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

s in the family

Cavoliniidae The Taxonomic rank, family Cavoliniidae is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group of small floating sea snails, pelagic marine (ocean), marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks.Gofas, S. (2011). Cavoliniidae. Accessed through: World Register of Ma ...

. It is a common species and is widespread, being found in European waters, the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific Ocean. It lives in the photic zone of the ocean between 0 and 30 m in depth.

Taxonomy

''Cavolinia tridentata'' (Forskål, 1775) was originally described as ''Anomia (bivalve), Anomia tridentata'' by the Finnish Peter Forsskål in 1775, based on specimens he collected in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the Danish Arabia expedition (1761–1767), Danish Arabia expedition. In 1791, Danish scientist Peter Christian Abildgaard described the genus ''Cavolina'' Abildgaard and included ''Anomia tridentata'' in it (as ''Cavolina natans'' Abildgaard). A number of other synonyms in the genera ''Cavolinia, Cleodora'' and ''Hyalaea'', as well as several Form (zoology), forms of this species, have been described.

Description

The maximum recorded gastropod shell, shell length is 20 mm. This species has a large, spherical and brownish Shell (mollusc), shell that is up to 14 mm high, with short lateral spines that are curved downward, a well-separated dorsal apertural lip, and a partially swollen ventral shell. Near the curved apertural margin there are clear transverse striae. The protoconch on the apical spine is straight and pointed.

Distribution

This marine species is common, with a wide distribution from 43°N (or even ~50°N, and occasionally as far north as 67°N) to 46°S, and from 97°W to 0°W, from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico. This distribution includes European waters, the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean (Azores, Cape Verde), the Northwest Atlantic (Gulf of Maine), Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Lesser Antilles, Indian Ocean (Mascarene Basin), the Indo-Pacific and off New Zealand

Habitat

The species is epipelagic, living in the uppermost layer of ocean between 0 and 30 m. Its minimum recorded depth is 0 m and its maximum recorded depth is 4791 m.

References

* Drivas, J. & M. Jay (1988). ''Coquillages de La Réunion et de l'île Maurice'' * Rosenberg, G. 1992. ''Encyclopedia of Seashells''. Dorset: New York. 224 pp. page(s): 122 * Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca, in: Costello, M.J. et al. (Ed.) (2001). ''European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification.'' Collection Patrimoines Naturels, 50: pp. 180–213 * Rolán E., 2005. ''Malacological Fauna From The Cape Verde Archipelago. Part 1, Polyplacophora and Gastropoda'' * Willan, R. (2009). Opisthobranchia (Mollusca). In: Gordon, D. (Ed.) (2009). ''New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Volume One: Kingdom Animalia''. 584 pp * Rosenberg, G., F. Moretzsohn, and E. F. García. 2009.
Gastropoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico
', Pp. 579–699 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas. * Janssen A.W. (2012)
Late Quaternary to Recent holoplanktonic Mollusca (Gastropoda) from bottom samples of the eastern Mediterranean Sea: systematics, morphology.
' Bollettino Malacologico 48 (suppl. 9): 1–105.

External links