† ''Lottia edmitchelli'' was a species of

limpet Limpets are a group of aquatic snails that exhibit a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. Limpets are members of the class Gastropoda, but are polyphyletic, meaning the various groups called "limpets" descended indep ...

in the family

Lottiidae Lottiidae is a family of sea snails, specifically true limpets, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Lottioidea and the clade Patellogastropoda (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). Subfamilies 20 ...

. It was native to the coast of

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

, where it may have been

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

. Specimens are known from

San Nicolas Island San Nicolas Island (Spanish: ''Isla de San Nicolás''; Tongva: ''Haraasnga'') is the most remote of the Channel Islands, off of Southern California, 61 miles (98 km) from the nearest point on the mainland coast. It is part of Ventura Coun ...

, one of the

Channel Islands of California The Channel Islands () are an eight-island archipelago located within the Southern California Bight in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. The four Northern Channel Islands are part of the Transverse Ranges geologic province, and ...

, and from San Pedro in the city of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

.Lindberg, D. R. (1984)
A recent specimen of ''Collisella edmitchelli'' from San Pedro, California (Mollusca: Acmaeidae).
''Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences'', 83(3), 148-151. The specimens from San Nicolas Island lived during the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

.Lindberg, D. R. (1978)
On the taxonomic affinities of ''Collisella edmitchelli'' (Lipps) (Gastropoda: Acmaeidae) a late Pleistocene limpet from San Nicolas Island, California.
''Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences'', 77, 65-70. The San Pedro specimen was a fresh shell collected between 1861 and 1863. No other fresh specimens have been found since, and the species is thought to be

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. It is a "neoextinction", one that occurred relatively recently. It may have become extinct because it lived in a specific and fragile habitat that was rapidly degraded and destroyed by human activity as the human population of Southern California grew.Carlton, James T. (1993)
Neoextinctions of marine invertebrates.
''American Zoologist'' 33(6) 499-509.

References

Lottiidae Extinct gastropods Fauna of California Gastropods described in 1963 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Lottiidae-stub