''Moelleria costulata'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

the ribbed moelleria, 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 ...

Colloniidae Colloniidae is a family of small sea snails with calcareous opercula, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda Vetigastropoda is a major taxonomic group of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that form a very ancient linea ...

Description

The size of the shell varies between 0.5 mm and 2.6 mm. The shell is ribbed longitudinally.

Distribution

This marine species occurs in circum- Arctic waters, off

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, in European waters, the Northwest

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

and down south to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

References

* Mighels, J. W. 1843. ''Descriptions of six species of shells regarded as new.'' Boston Journal of Natural History 4: 345–350, pl. 16. * Verkrüzen, T. A. 1877. ''Liste der von T. A. Verkrüzen in 1876 in Neufundland und Nova Scotia gesammelten Mollusken''. Nachrichtsblatt der Deutschen Malakozoologischen Gesellschaft 9: 52–57. * Turgeon, D.D., et al. 1998. ''Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates of the United States and Canada''. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 26-page(s): 60 * Brunel, P., L. Bosse, & G. Lamarche. (1998). ''Catalogue of the marine invertebrates of the estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence''. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 126. 405 p. * 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 * Trott, T.J. 2004. ''Cobscook Bay inventory: a historical checklist of marine invertebrates spanning 162 years''. Northeastern Naturalist (Special Issue 2): 261 – 324

External links

* Colloniidae Gastropods described in 1842 {{Colloniidae-stub