Otina ovata
Encyclopedia
Otina ovata is a species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of small, air-breathing sea snail
Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....

 or sea slug
Slug
Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell...

, a marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the superfamily Otinoidea
Otinoidea
Otinoidea is a superfamily of small, air-breathing sea snail and sea slugs, marine pulmonate gastropod mollusks....

.

Otina ovata is the only species in the genus Otina. Otina is the only genus in the family Otinidae.

This family was classified within the clade Eupulmonata
Eupulmonata
The Eupulmonata is a taxonomic clade of air-breathing snails. The great majority of this group are land snails and slugs, but some are marine and some are saltmarsh snails that can tolerate salty conditions.-Linnean taxonomy:...

, which was within the informal group Basommatophora
Basommatophora
Basommatophora was a term that was previously used as a taxonomic informal group, a group of snails within the informal group Pulmonata, the air-breathing slugs and snails...

, according to the Taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005)
Taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005)
The taxonomy of the Gastropoda as it was revised by Philippe Bouchet and Jean-Pierre Rocroi is currently the most up-to-date overall system for classifying gastropod mollusks...

.

Various authors have referred some North American fossils to "Otinidae", but they did not give a genus or species for these records.

Distribution

This species is not common.

It occurs on the coasts of the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 in Western and South-Western Europe:
  • British Isles (South and West coasts): Great Britain and Ireland
  • Belgium
    Belgium
    Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

  • Northern France (Manche, Etretat and Atlantic coast)
  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Sardinia


The type locality is Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

shire, England.

Description

The shell
Gastropod shell
The gastropod shell is a shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, one kind of mollusc. The gastropod shell is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not only for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators and from mechanical damage...

 is very small. The shell has 1.5 whorls
Whorl (mollusc)
A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in of numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including Nautilus, Spirula and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the...

. The last whorl is inflated. The aperture
Aperture (mollusc)
The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc....

 is oval and very large, like in succineids, columellar and parietal sides of the margin thickened.

The width of the shell is 1.5-3 mm. The height of the shell is 2-5 mm.

The animal cannot withdraw entirely into the shell. Otina ovata has no tentacles.

Habitat

This species breathes air and thus it is found intertidally on rocky shores in such places as caves and rocky overhangs.

Otina ovata lives in intertidal zone
Intertidal zone
The intertidal zone is the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide . This area can include many different types of habitats, with many types of animals like starfish, sea urchins, and some species of coral...

 on rocks, algae and balanoids. It is often found in empty bivalve shells and moist rock crevices.

External links

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