''Callianax biplicata'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s the "purple dwarf olive" "purple olive shell" or "purple olivella" is a species of small predatory

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 Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

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 ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

in the family

Olividae Olive snails, also known as olive shells and olives, scientific name Olividae, are a taxonomic family of medium to large predatory sea snails with smooth, shiny, elongated oval-shaped shells.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2012). Olividae. Accessed throu ...

, the olives. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Callianax biplicata (G. B. Sowerby I, 1825). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1424883 on 2021-11-04

Distribution

''Callianax biplicata'' snails are found in the Eastern Pacific Ocean coasts from British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, Mexico.

Habitat

This species is common on sandy

substrate Substrate may refer to: Physical layers *Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached ** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...

s intertidally and subtidally, in bays and the outer coast.Dave Cowles. 2005
''Olivella biplicata (Sowerby, 1825)''
. accessed 22 November 2008.

Life habits

These snails are

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

or omnivorous sand-burrowers.

Shell description

This shell of this species is quite solid, and large for an ''Olivella'', with adult shells ranging from 20 mm to 27 mm in length, about one inch. The shell is smooth, shiny, and is an elongated oval in shape. The shell is often some shade of greyish purple, but it can also be whitish, tan, or dark brown. On the darker color forms there is often some rich yellow above the suture on the spire. At the anterior end of the long narrow aperture there is a siphonal notch, from which the

siphon A siphon (from grc, σίφων, síphōn, "pipe, tube", also spelled nonetymologically syphon) is any of a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. In a narrower sense, the word refers particularly to a tube in a ...

of the living animal protrudes.

Image:Olivella biplicata.jpg, ''Callianax biplicata'', a pale individual Image:Olivella biplicata 2.jpg, ''Callianax biplicata'', the dark morph Pagurus in Olivella biplicata

Human use

Native people of central and southern California used the shell of this species to make decorative beads for at least the last 9,000 years. Such beads have been discovered in archaeological contexts as far inland as Idaho and Arizona. Within the past 1,000 years these beads began to be manufactured in large quantities on southern California's

Santa Barbara Channel Islands 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 ...

, indicating that they were used for shell money. The historic Chumash people called them ''anchum''.Daily Life in a Chumash village
. last change 4 August 2005, accessed 22 November 2008.

Notes

References

* Arnold, J.E. and A.P. Graesch. 2001. The Evolution of Specialized Shellworking Among the Island Chumash. In ''The Origins of a Pacific Coast Chiefdom: the Chumash of the Channel Islands'', edited by J.E. Arnold, pp. 71–112. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. * Bennyhoff, James A. and Richard E. Hughes. 1987. Shell Bead and Ornament Exchange Networks between California and the Western Great Basin. ''Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History'' 64:79-175. * Fitzgerald, Richard T., Terry L. Jones, and Adele Schroth. 2005. Ancient Long Distance Trade in Western North America: New AMS Radiocarbon Dates from Southern California. ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' 32:423-434. * McLean, J.H. (2007) Gastropoda. In Carlton, J.T. (Ed.) Light and Smith's Manual. Intertidal Invertebrates of the Central California Coast. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 713-753 * Powell II, C. L.; Vervaet, F.; Berschauer, D. (2020). A taxonomic review of California Holocene Callianax (Olivellidae:Gastropoda:Mollusca) based on shell characters. The Festivus. Supplement - special issue, 1-38.

External links

Sowerby, G. B., I. (1825). A catalogue of the shells contained in the collection of the late Earl of Tankerville : arranged according to the Lamarckian conchological system: together with an appendix, containing descriptions of many new species London, vii + 92 + xxxiv pp

Oldroyd, T.S. (1918). Olivella biplicata angelena, var. nov. The Nautilus. 32(1): 34- 35

Vanatta, E.G. (1915). Notes on Oliva. The Nautilus. 29(6): 67-75
* {{commons category, Olivella biplicata Olivellinae Native American culture Gastropods described in 1825 Taxa named by George Brettingham Sowerby I