Elachorbis Tatei
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Elachorbis tatei'' 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), ...
of minute
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 ...
with an operculum, a 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 ...
mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000  extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...
in the family
Tornidae Tornidae is a family (biology), family of very small and minute sea snails with an Operculum (gastropod), operculum, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Littorinimorpha. This family used to be known as the Vitrinellidae.Bouchet ...
.


Distribution

This species can be found along the coast of
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
and
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
in shallow waters and in depths up to 150
fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. H ...
s (or 275 m).


Description

The small shell varies in thickness. It possesses two coarse, spiral keels (a spiral ridge usually marking a change of slope in the outline of the shell) that can vary in strength or even be obsolete. The shell has a wide perspective umbilicus, and a discontinuous
peristome Peristome (from the Greek language, Greek ''peri'', meaning 'around' or 'about', and ''stoma'', 'mouth') is an anatomical feature that surrounds an opening to an organ or structure. Some plants, fungi, and shelled gastropods have peristomes. In mo ...
.


References

* Powell A. W. B., "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979


External links


Southern Australian gastropoda, ''Elachorbis tatei'', accessed 18 February 2011
Tornidae Gastropods described in 1878 {{Tornidae-stub