Campanile symbolicum

Campanile symbolicum, common name the bell clapper or the giant creeper, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Campanilidae.[1]

Campanile symbolicum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Gastropoda
(unranked):
clade Caenogastropoda
Superfamily:
Campaniloidea
Family:
Campanilidae
Genus:
Campanile
Species:
C. symbolicum
Binomial name
Campanile symbolicum
Iredale, 1917

This is the only surviving species in the family Campanilidae and is a living fossil.

Description

The length of the large, elongate, conical shell varies between 60 mm and 244 mm. There is a thick, chalky periostracum on the shell. The axis of the triangular-fusiform aperture makes a 45° angle with the shell. The shell has a sinuous outer lip and a central siphonal canal. The brown-colored, paucispiral operculum has a subcentral nucleus. The diameter of the operculum is somewhat smaller than the diameter of the aperture, allowing the animal to retract further inwards. The short, concave columella is twisted slightly to the left at the anterior canal. Its taeniglossate radula and thick jaws are characteristic of a herbivore.[2]

Distribution

This marine species is found off southwest Australia in shallow, sandy habitats in the subtidal zone.

References
  1. Rosenberg, G. (2013). Campanile symbolicum Iredale, 1917. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=527560 on 2013-06-28
  2. Richard S. Houbrick, Anatomy, Biology and Systematics of Campanile symbolicum with reference to adaptive radiation of the Cerithiacea (Gastropoda, Prosobranchia); Malacologia 1981 31 (1-2): 263-289
  • Rosenberg, G. 1992. Encyclopedia of Seashells. Dorset: New York. 224 pp.
  • "Campanile symbolicum". Gastropods.com. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
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