Scissurella mantelli facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Scissurella mantelli |
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| Drawing with an apertural view of a shell of Scissurella mantelli | |
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Anatoma mantelli (Woodward, 1859) |
Scissurella mantelli is a type of very small sea snail. It is a marine gastropod mollusc that belongs to the family Scissurellidae.
About This Tiny Snail
This snail's name, Scissurella mantelli, is a bit uncertain in the world of science. It was first described by a scientist named Woodward in 1859.
What It Looks Like
Woodward said that Scissurella mantelli looks a lot like another snail called Scissurella elegans. However, Scissurella mantelli is usually a bit bigger. It also has a flatter shape and more detailed patterns on its shell.
One special part of these snails is a groove or slit on their shell called a scissural band. In S. mantelli, this band is longer than in S. elegans.
Woodward also noticed something interesting about how the shell grows. When the snail is very young, its shell does not have this slit. The slit, or scissural band, only starts to form later as the snail gets older. It grows around the shell's spiral turns, called whorls, but it doesn't go all the way to the very tip, or apex, of the shell. It stops within about half a whorl from the shell's opening, which is called the aperture.
Where It Lives
This marine snail can be found in the ocean waters near the North Island of New Zealand.
See Also
In Spanish: Anatoma mantelli para niños
