Kingdom Animalia Class Gastropoda Family Calyptraeidae Scientific name Crepidula atrasolea | Phylum Mollusca Superfamily Calyptraeoidea Genus Crepidula Rank Species | |
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Crepidula atrasolea is a species of small sea snail, a slipper snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Calyptraeidae, the slipper snails or slipper limpets, cup-and-saucer snails, and hat snails.
Contents
This species is similar to C. plana and C. depressa but can be distinguished from them on the basis of dark pigment on the foot, direct developing embryos. DNA sequence data shows that these three species are closely related within the genus Crepidula but are not closely related to other flat white species of Crepidula which occur distributed throughout the phylogeny of Crepidula.
A video showing the differences between the species is available CollinLab videos
Distribution
This species occurs in the Western Atlantic Ocean. This species occurs in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina. Flat white Crepidula occurring north of this range are almost certainly Crepidula plana. Old records often confuse Crepidula plana, Crepidula atrasolea and Crepidula depressa, and distribution data should be treated with caution unless it includes observations of development type, body color, or genetic data.
Description
The maximum shell size of this species is 16 mm in females; males are much smaller.
The maximum recorded shell length is 15.8 mm.
Habitat
Minimum recorded depth is 0 m. Maximum recorded depth is 20 m.
Crepidula atrasolea is particularly common living in dead oyster shells in shall reefs and seagrass beds in Florida.