''Patella vulgata'',

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 common limpet or common European limpet 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 ...

. It is a typical true

limpet Limpets are a group of aquatic snails with a conical gastropod shell, shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. This general category of conical shell is known as "patelliform" (dish-shaped). Existing within the class Gastropoda, ...

; 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Patellidae, with gills.Gofas, S. (2014). Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=140685 on 2014-10-29 This species occurs in the waters of Western

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Radula

The

radula The radula (; : radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by mollusks for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters ...

in this species is longer than the shell itself. It contains 1,920 teeth in 160 rows of 12 teeth each. ''Patella vulgata'' is found attached to firm substrates from the high shore to the edge of the sublittoral zone, although it predominates in areas of wave action. Its shell is conical, up to around 6 cm long, and lacks defined chirality. Common limpets are believed to be able to live for up to twenty years. ''Patella vulgata'' has been the focus of a range of scientific investigation, as far back as 1935. Its development is well described and it has been the focus of transcriptomic investigation, providing a range of genomic sequence data in this species for analysis. Their teeth are the strongest natural material known. A study published in the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

journal in 2015 concluded that "the tensile strength of limpet teeth can reach values significantly higher than spider silk, considered to be currently the strongest biological material, and only comparable to the strongest commercial carbon fibres." The material was able to withstand 4.9 GPa. This considerable tensile strength of limpet teeth is attributed to a high mineral volume fraction of reinforcing

goethite Goethite (, ) is a mineral of the diaspore group, consisting of iron(III) oxide-hydroxide, specifically the α- polymorph. It is found in soil and other low-temperature environments such as sediment. Goethite has been well known since ancient t ...

nanofibres.Webb, Jonathan.
Limpet teeth set new strength record
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 18 February 2015. Patella vulgata broutage 3993

Human consumption

The common limpet was formerly eaten in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, especially during times of hunger such as the Great Famine of 1845–50; it was known to be very tough and had to be thoroughly boiled or roasted to be edible. One Irish proverb said that "Mussels are the food of kings, limpets are the food of peasants." Tomas O'Crohan described eating them in his memoir ''The Islandman''. They are also consumed in Asturias in Spain under the name "Llampares" and in Portugal under the name "Lapas".

Gallery

Patella vulgata Napfschnecke.jpg, Shells of the common limpet from

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Napfschnecke common-limpet patella vulgata.jpg, ''Patella vulgata'' in litoral of

Finistère Finistère (, ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest, France, Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.Porspoder - the region affected by the

Amoco Cadiz ''Amoco Cadiz'' was an oil tanker owned by Amoco, Amoco Transport Corp and transporting crude oil for Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Oil. Operating under the Liberian flag, she ran aground on 16 March 1978 on Portsall, Portsall Rocks, from the coast ...

tanker disaster in 1978 View on the animal of Patella vulgata.png, Drawing of the soft body and underside of the shell of ''Patella vulgata''; a) foot b) fringed mantle c) tentacles d) mouth e) eyes f) gills File:Napfschnecke4.jpg, Photograph of the soft body and underside Radula of Patella vulgata.png, Radula of ''Patella vulgata''; a) median teeth b) laterals c) uncini or marginals Altamira Patella vulgata Édouard Harlé MHNT.PRE.20120.0.608.jpg, Remains of a human meal, limpet shells from Cantabrian Lower

Magdalenian Magdalenian cultures (also Madelenian; ) are later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic in western Europe. They date from around 17,000 to 12,000 years before present. It is named after the type site of Abri de la Madeleine, a ro ...

layer of the Altamira cave. - MHNT Patella vulgata 2015-09-08 ag M0010161.jpg, ''Patella vulgata'' in its natural habitat.

References

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae. ii, 824 pp.
* Lespinet, Nederbragt, Cassan, Dictus, Van Loon, et al. ''Characterisation of two snail genes in the gastropod mollusc Patella vulgata. Implications for understanding the ancestral function of the snail-related genes in Bilateria.'' 2002.

External links

Entry
in

Encyclopedia of Life The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It aggregates content to form "pages" for every known species. Content is compiled from existing trusted ...

MarLIN species information

Live underwater image

BBC Info retrieved 2012

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q182258 Patellidae Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Marine molluscs of Europe Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Radula

Human consumption

See also

Gallery

References

External links