''Macrarene californica'', common name the Californian liotia, 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 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 ...

, 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 Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Liotiidae Liotiidae is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).Gofas, S. (2013). Liotiidae Gray, 1850. Accessed through: World Register of ...

.Rosenberg, G. (2012). ''Macrarene californica'' (Dall, 1908). Accessed through:

World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=575693 on 2012-12-03

Description

(Original description by W.H. Dall) The height of the shell attains 15 mm, its diameter 23 mm. The rude, yellowish-white shell is large for the genus. It has a depressed shape with about six

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). In nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral diagra ...

s, carrying at the shoulder six blunt, large, projecting tubercles. The nucleus is small, the nepionic whorls reticulate and flattened. The later whorls are keeled bluntly at the shoulder, behind which they are flattened. On the flat area are two strong, elevated, spiral threads (which later disappear) close together, with the channels on either side reticulated by subequal and subequally spaced radial threads. On the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology (biology), morphology of the gastropod shell, shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk ...

all the

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

on the upper part of the whorl, except the keel connecting the tubercles at the shoulder, has disappeared. The surface of the shell is of a spongy nature and all the sculpture is obscure as if deliquescent. The base of the shell is rounded with a large spiral, deep umbilicus, having one entering a spiral keel which ends at a projection of the pillar lip. The verge of the umbilicus is rounded and spongy. Outside of this ridge in the young it is constricted by a row of pits between which and the periphery are some obscure spirals in some specimens. The

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

is circular within, and when fresh, brilliantly pearly, but the pearly coating is very thin and seems to disappear in dead shells. The outer margin of the aperture, which is very thick, is modified by the umbilical keel and other sculpture. The operculum is multispiral, with the external edges of the whorls fringed, very concave, and showing hardly any calcareous deposit. This species is usually covered with

Polyzoa Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a lo ...

Lithothamnion ''Lithothamnion'' is a genus of thalloid red alga comprising 103 species. Its members are known by a number of common names.Recorded common names are griuán, maërl, punalevä-suku, stenhinna and maerl. The monomerous, crustose thalli are compos ...

, and other adherent matter, which obscures its appearance, but the shell itself is so rude, spongy, and bleached in appearance that the actual surface is often discriminated only when examined with a lens.W.H. Dall (1908) Reports on the Mollusca and Brachiopoda, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. vol. 43
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Distribution

This marine species occurs in the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

, Western

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

References

External links

Biodiversity Heritage Library (1 publication)

World Register of Marine Species
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6725077 californica Gastropods described in 1908