Common tower snail
| Common tower snail | ||||||||||||
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Common tower snail ( Turritella communis ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Turritella communis | ||||||||||||
| Risso , 1826 |
The common tower snail ( Turritella communis ) is a species of snail that lives in European coastal waters .
features
The case is thin-walled, slim, tower-like and wound high. The rounded turns have a deep seam, the apex is very pointed. The surface structure of the housing is created by crossing the coarse spiral strips with the fine axial strips. Sometimes, especially in the lower area of the case, more distinct, irregular growth lines can be seen. The color of the case varies from reddish brown to yellowish, while the spindle of the house is much lighter in color. The casing of Turritella communis reaches a length of 4 to 6 cm.
Systematics
In the more recent system of snails, this species is in the genus Turritella and the family Turritellidae (tower snails) and the order Sorbeoconcha . In the past, the family was placed in the now outdated order of the middle snails (Mesogastropoda), the subclass fore gills (Prosobranchia).
Biology and habitat
The habitat of Turritella communis is formed by the European coasts, especially the Mediterranean, the German Bight and the East Atlantic. They prefer sandy soils in which they dig themselves and only the mouth of the case remains on the surface in order to force small food particles into the mouth opening with eyelashes on the operculum . For this reason, living animals are difficult to spot. In some cases, however, the empty and more or less damaged housings appear in large numbers, which are washed out of the sand by the movement of the waves. At the flushing edge of shallower coastal sections - for example the west coast of the upper Adriatic - the washed-up housings align themselves in the direction of the wave movement. The case is about four centimeters long. The common tower snail reaches a maximum age of 5 years.
literature
- Taxonomy: Costello, MJ; Bouchet, P .; Boxshall, G .; Emblow, C .; Vanden Berghe, E. (2004). European Register of Marine Species ( http://www.marbef.org/data/erms.php ). Retrieved November 22, 2006. Record
- Westheide, Wilfried, Rieger, Reinhard: Special Zoology Part 1 , 2nd edition, Elsevier (2006).
- S. Peter Dance: Mussels and snails , Urania Naturführer, 2nd edition, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-332-00992-3 .