''Oliva porphyria'', common name the tent olive, is a species of

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 in the family Olividae, the olives. Its shell pattern has been studied as an example of a Turing pattern that can be modeled with cellular automata.

Subspecies

* ''Oliva porphyria erythrostoma'' F.C. Meuschen, 1787

Description

The length of the shell can vary between 30 mm and 135 mm. The flesh-colored shell is angularly marked with some large, and many small, crowded, deep chestnut lines. The fasciole is tinged with violet, with chestnut maculations. The interior of the aperture and columella is yellowish flesh-color. Sometimes the shell is very faintly, broadly two- or three-banded with bluish ash.G.W. Tryon (1883) Manual of Conchology vol. V; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
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Distribution

This marine species occurs in the Panama Zone to Western Mexico ( Gulf of California), to Northern Peru.

Bibliography

* Rowland F. Zeigler - Olive Shells of the World * Günther Sterba - Olividae - A Collector's Guide * Edward J. Petuch, Dennis M. Sargent - Atlas of the Living Olive Shells of the World - Coastal Education & Research Foundation (U.S.) * Bernard Tursch, Dietmar Greifeneder - Oliva shells: the genus Oliva and the species problem * Graham Saunders - Spotters Guide to Shells * Angeline Myra Keen - Sea Shells of Tropical West America - Stanford University Press, 1971 * Jerome M. Eisenberg - Collector's guide to Seashells of the World * A. Robin - Encyclopedia of Marine Gastropods * H. P. Oliver - Hamlyn Guide to Shells of the World * R. Tucker Abbott and S. Peter Dance - Compendium of Seashells * S. Peter Dance - Eyewitness handbooks - Shells

References

External links

* Rajiv Sobhe
The mathematics of patterning

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