''Anatoma crispata'' is a species of minute

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk or

micromollusk A micromollusk is a shelled mollusk which is extremely small, even at full adult size. The word is usually, but not exclusively, applied to marine mollusks, although in addition, numerous species of land snails and freshwater mollusks also ...

in the family

Anatomidae Anatomidae is a family of minute sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). Anatomidae was raised to the rank of subfamily to the rank of family ...

Description

The length of the shell varies between 1 mm and 4 mm. The globose, pearly white shell slopes toward the periphery. It is delicate, semitransparent, and glossy. The sculpture consists of numerous fine, curved, longitudinal ribs, interrupted by the slit fasciole, closer on the base, intersected by minute spiral striae in the interstices. The thin epidermis is caducous, and pale yellowish-brown. The spire is usually rather depressed, but variable. The four ;

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

s are flattened above, rapidly enlarging. The slit is long and narrow, nearly central. The slit fasciole is deep, striated across. The edges are somewhat thick, sharp, and prominent . The rounded aperture is oblique. The peristome is continuous. The outer lip is thin. The inner lip is folded back on the columella. The umbilicus is deep, but exposing only the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

. The operculum is very delicate, with numerous whorls, the last large.

Distribution

This species has a wide distribution. It occurs in circumarctic waters ( Greenland, Canada,

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

, Queen Elisabeth Islands, Labrador), in European waters, the Mediterranean Sea, in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores,

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

, Angola; in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean ( Florida, the Bahamas), in the West Indies, in the Pacific Ocean off California and Japan. This species has been cited from multiple localities throughout the North Atlantic, but most records are inaccurate due to confusion with Anatoma aspera (mostly), A. tenuisculpta and A. orbiculata. Therefore, records which are not backed by an illustration or a specimen should be disregarded.

References

* Geiger, D.L. (2012). Monograph of the little slit shells. Volume 1. Introduction, Scissurellidae. pp. 1–728. Volume 2. Anatomidae, Larocheidae, Depressizonidae, Sutilizonidae, Temnocinclidae. pp. 729–1291. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Monographs. Number 7

External links

*
Fleming, J. (1828). A history of British animals, exhibiting the descriptive characters and systematical arrangement of the genera and species of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, Mollusca, and Radiata of the United Kingdom; including the indigenous, extirpated, and extinct kinds, together with periodical and occasional visitants. Edinburgh, Bell & Bradfute / London, James Duncan. Pp. i–xxii, 1–565

Høisæter T. & Geiger D.L. (2011) Species of Anatoma (Gastropoda: Anatomidae) in Norwegian and adjacent waters, with the description of two new species. The Nautilus 125(3): 89–112

Lovén, S. L. (1846). Index Molluscorum litora Scandinaviae occidentalia habitantium. Öfversigt af Kongliga Vetenskaps Akademiens Förhandlingar. (1846): 134–160, 182–204

Micali P. & Geiger D.L. (2015). Additions and corrections to the Scissurellidae and Anatomidae (Gastropoda Vetigastropoda) of the Mediterranean Sea, with first record of Sinezona semicostata Burnay et Rolán, 1990. Biodiversity Journal. 6(3): 703–708

Nekhaev, I. O.; Krol, E. N. (2020). A review of the genus Anatoma in the Eurasian Arctic seas (Gastropoda: Vetigastropoda: Anatomidae). Zoosystematica Rossica, (Zoosyst. Rossica). 29(1): 128–137
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anatoma Crispata Anatomidae Gastropods described in 1828 Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Molluscs of the Pacific Ocean Molluscs of the Mediterranean Sea