| |
Bivalves - Bivalvia
- hard substrates
|
Mytilus galloprovincialis,
blue mussel
<12 cm, attaches to underwater
rocks with a bunch super-strong bissus threads, deeper
it lives on soft sediments where several mussels make
a bunch attaching to each other, and putting bissus
into sand or silt - like roots. Mussel is
cultured at marine farms where its planktonic larvae
settle on the special collecting ropes
|
Mytilaster lineatus
<3 cm. Attaches with bissus threads to any hard
surface - stones, piers, stems of large macroalgae.
Extremely endurable species, it can live inshore.
These Mytilaster shells became a substrate for red
algae
Lithothamnion
(crust) and
Corallina
| |
Ostrea edulis, edible oyster
<12 cm. Their shell grow to rocks and other oysters. Black Sea oyster population
is
almost completely destroyed by predator
Rapana venosa
whelk and protozoan parasite Bonamia
|
Crassostrea gigas,
giant oyster
<40 cm. Pacific species, being grown at Utrish
shellfish farm near Anapa, Black Sea Caucasian coast - instead of disappearing
edible oyster Ostrea edulis
|
Pholas dactylus
<5 cm. Its shell is a toothed drill for making holes
in soft rocks. Many marl stones nearshore - and some
washed ashore - are densely covered by Pholas holes of
about 0.5cm diameter.
Sphynx blennies
like to occupy empty
Pholas
holes
| |
Black Sea Shells on rocky
beaches - Gastropods-Gastropoda
|
Patella tarentina
<5 cm, limpet - snail without curls, adheres to stone
surface and scrape periphyton off it. Became rare
species because of Rapana pressure; the remains of
Black Sea population of limpets finds refuge in narrow
slits in rocks - where Rapana can't reach them. Most
of the few oysters left also grow in slits
|
Gibbula divaricata
<1.5 cm, most abundant gastropod stone scraper
| |
Gibbula adriatica
<1.0 cm. lives both on stones and the branches of
brown macroalgae Cystoseira barbata
|
Gibbula albida
<2.5 cm - no live findings during the last 5 years
|
|
Bela nebula
<0.7 cm. very rare snail
|
Cerithium vulgatum
<4 cm. We don't see live Cerithiums in
Black Sea
in last years; their shells sometimes are used as
houses by
Diogenes pugilator hermit crab
| |
Cytharella costata
<0.4 cm, very rare species
|
Bittium reticulatum
<1.5 cm, lives on macroalgal
branches scraping periphyton and dead algal cells.
Kids call them "carrots"
|
|
Hidrobia sp.
<0.4 cm, lives on macroalgal branches
|
Nana donovani
<0.7 cm, lives on macroalgal branches; kids call them
"buttons"
| |
Rissoa splendida
<0.4 cm, lives on macroalgal branches
|
Tricolia pulla
<0.6 cm, dominant snail species on macroalgal branches
|
|
Tritia reticulata
<3 cm. Abundant detritivorous species.
Tritia
shell is a favorite house of
Diogenes pugilator hermit
crab
| |
Chitons
Lepidochitona cinerea
<3 cm, lives on rock surfaces scraping off periphyton.
Chiton
shell
consists of 8 overlying plates, and due to the shell
flexibility this creature can roll itself into a ball. Like
limpets, chitons can very strongly pull themselves to the hard
surfaces. Chitons represent molluscan class separate from
bivalves and gastropods. This is a picture of live
Lepidochitona
from the Black Sea Caucasian coast.
Teredo navalis, shipworm
<25 cm, bivalvian mollusk settling in any piece of wood
getting into the sea. It eats both plankton (like most
bivalves), and the wood it drills. Shipworm shell is reduced
to a small cap on the anterior end of the body - this small
shell is its drilling tool. Teredo lines its holes in wood
with a limestone stucco.
|
|
