12 Mar 2010

Tiny creature with brilliant color



Take a look inside the shadowy hole. Something strange seems to be there. It's bad luck that my curiosity disturbs its peace,but I cannot let this chance for a better look at this strange color, go by. Luckily it’s stuck on a stone which can be moved. I really don’t like to disturb the creatures I meet and I rarely do, unless it is something really unique and I cannot take a photo otherwise. It is a tiny limpet and it has a color that I have never seen before on a limpet. Its size is not bigger than 3mm and it was very hard to take this picture with a compact camera that I found on a nearby diver’s hand (thank you Hildegard)!!! I asked Spanish collaborator of www.sealifebase.org Victor Simon if he knows which species it is and he thought that it is a Leptea fulva but he cannot be sure. The shape and the color indicate to this but L.fulva it usually lives deep. Limpets are members of the Superfamily Patellacea of the Order Archaeogastropoda which are the first Gastropoda in the evolution (Archaeo is from a greek word which means ancient).

2 comments:

  1. Leptea fulva..

    I try to find this species but in nowhere!!!
    Even in the sealifbase..

    Is any mistake?

    See also in CLEMAM site but nothing...

    Something strange is..

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  2. Yeap Dimitri it is strange. I have ask the collaborator the same questions before some months but i haven't take any answer yet. You can ask him too at http://www.sealifebase.org/collaborators/CollaboratorSummary.php?id=127

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