''Tentaoculus granulatus'' 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 ...

, deep-sea

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 in the family Pseudococculinidae .

Description

The length of the shell attains 3.8 mm.

Distribution

This small limpet occurs at

methane seep A cold seep (sometimes called a cold vent) is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. ''Cold'' does not mean that the temperature of the seep ...

s in deep water off the Congo River.

References

* Warén A. & Bouchet P. (2009). New gastropods from deep-sea hydrocarbon seeps off West Africa. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 56(23): 2326-2349 Pseudococculinidae Gastropods described in 2009 {{Pseudococculinidae-stub