Guildfordia triumphans (triumphant star turban snail) 1 (24716030770)

Description:

Description: Guildfordia triumphans (Philippi, 1841) - triumphant star turban snail (apical view) (public display, Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA) The gastropods (snails & slugs) are a group of molluscs that occupy marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Most gastropods have a calcareous external shell (the snails). Some lack a shell completely, or have reduced internal shells (the slugs & sea slugs & pteropods). Most members of the Gastropoda are marine. Most marine snails are herbivores (algae grazers) or predators/carnivores. The turbinids are common, tropical, herbivorous snails. One of the more visually intriguing turbinids is the star turban snail. This snail tends to inhabit unconsolidated, fine-grained substrates in moderately deep, low-energy settings. The long spines projecting from the final whorl's keel are throught to help prevent the snail from sinking (a common problem among epifaunal, benthic invertebrates throughout geologic history) and to help prevent predators from easily flipping the shell over. The triumphant star turban snail shown above is part of the Japanese Province: "Sandwiched between the cold-waters of northern Japan and the warmer, more southerly areas of Okinawa and Taiwan is the rather isolated Japanese Province containing such endemic species as the noble scallop, Japanese wonder shell and many latiaxis snails. This temperate-water area supports about 1,500 species, including the famous Japanese pearl oyster." [info. from museum signage] Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Gastropoda, Turbinidae Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed/unspecified More info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildfordia_triumphans. Date: 3 January 2016, 16:50. Source: Guildfordia triumphans (triumphant star turban snail) 1. Author: James St. John.