''Siphonaria pectinata'',

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 ...

the striped false limpet, is a species of air-breathing

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 ...

or 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 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 * ...

heterobranch

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 Siphonariidae.

Taxonomic status

''Siphonaria pectinata'' (Linnaeus, 1758) was thought to be a widespread species with an Amphiatlantic distribution. A 2015 molecular study clearly distinguished three lineages with no apparent connectivity.Giribet, G. and Kawauchi, G. Y., 2015. How many species of ''Siphonaria pectinata'' (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia) are there? Journal of Molluscan Studies 1–7. Advance Access published 4 September 2015 These lineages are now treated as three separate species. They are named as ''S. pectinata'', restricted to the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, '' S. naufragum'' (Stearns, 1872) from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico and ''S. placentula'' Menke, 1853 from the Cape Verde Archipelago. The complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome of ''Siphonaria pectinata'' has been available since 2008.Grande C., Templado J. & Zardoya R. 2008
''Evolution of gastropod mitochondrial genome arrangements''
BMC Evolutionary Biology 2008, 8:61. As a result of this study, Grande et al. (2008) proposed that this species should be recognized as a member of the

Opisthobranchia Opisthobranchs () is now an informal name for a large and diverse group of specialized complex gastropods which used to be united in the subclass Opisthobranchia. That taxon is no longer considered to represent a monophyletic grouping. Euopisth ...

rather than the

Pulmonata Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

. It is now known that the

are actually a group within the former

and the term Heterobranchia is usually used to clarify this relationship.

Distribution

This species lives high in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

on rocky shores in the North Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. Populations in the Eastern Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...

are now known to belong to the sibling species, '' Siphonaria naufragum''.''Siphonaria naufragum'' at Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce.
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References

* Gofas, S.; Le Renard, J.; Bouchet, P. (2001). Mollusca. in: Costello, M.J. et al. (eds), ''European Register of Marine Species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification.'' Patrimoines Naturels. 50: 180-213

External links

* * Crocetta F. (2016). "Backdating the confirmed presence of ''Siphonaria pectinata'' (Gastropoda: Siphonariidae) along the northern Mediterranean shores, with a discussion on its status in the basin". '' Marine Biodiversity Records'' 9: 55. . * Simone, L. R. L., & Seabra, M. I. G. (2017). "Shell and body structure of the plesiomorphic pulmonate marine limpet ''Siphonaria pectinata'' (Linnaeus, 1758) from Portugal (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Siphonariidae)". ''Folia Malacologica'' 25(3): 147-164. Siphonariidae Gastropods described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Molluscs of the Atlantic Ocean Molluscs of the Mediterranean Sea {{Siphonariidae-stub