Superfamily Stromboidea Higher classification Strombus | Scientific name Strombus alatus Rank Species | |
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Similar Strombus, Strombus pugilis, Hawkwing Conch, Molluscs, Gastropods | ||
Snails strombus alatus the florida fighting conch ep 11
Strombus alatus, common name the "Florida fighting conch" is a species of medium-sized warm-water sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Strombidae, the true conchs.
Contents
- Snails strombus alatus the florida fighting conch ep 11
- Distribution
- Description
- Phylogeny
- Habitat
- References
Distribution
This conch occurs in the Western Atlantic Ocean from North Carolina throughout Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Texas and the east coast of Mexico.
Description
The shell can be as large as 112 millimetres (4.4 in).
This species is closely similar to Strombus pugilis, the West Indian fighting conch, which has a more southerly range. Strombus alatus shells have less prominent subsutural spines and a slightly more projected outer lip. Some scientists have treated the two as distinct species; others as subspecies. In an extensive study of the Stromboidea in 2005, Simone provisionally treated these as distinct species, but observed that "no spectacular morphological difference was found [and] all related differences, even those of the genital system, can be regarded as extreme of variation of a single, wide distributed, variable species."
Phylogeny
A cladogram based on sequences of nuclear histone H3 gene and mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I (COI) gene showing phylogenetic relationships of (32 analyzed) species in the genus Strombus and Lambis, including Strombus alatus, was proposed by Latiolais et al. (2006):
Habitat
The minimum recorded depth for this species is 0 m; the maximum recorded depth is 183 m.
