''Shinkailepas kaikatensis'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

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 false

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 ...

, 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 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 e ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Phenacolepadidae Phenacolepadidae is a family (biology), family of small sea snails or false limpets, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Cycloneritimorpha (according to the Taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005), taxonomy of the G ...

. It was first described by Okutani, Saito and Hashimoto in 1989.

Description

The individuals in the NOAA image are adults of 2 cm (0.75 in) living on rock surfaces at a

hydrothermal vent A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...

at the East Diamante seamount, which is west-southwest of the small island of

Farallon de Medinilla Farallon de Medinilla (also known as No'os) is an uninhabited small island in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is located north of Saipan, and is the smallest island in the archipelago (not counting the Zealandia Bank). Poli ...

in the Southern Seamount Province of the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

. The hydrothermal vent at East Diamante is "shallower than 200 m (650 ft)" according to the NOAA description. The white dots on the rocks and on the limpet shells in this image are the egg capsules of the species.

References

External links

NOAA info and source of the image

WoRMS info
Phenacolepadidae Gastropods described in 1989 {{Phenacolepadidae-stub