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3 - Marine Ecology & Molluscs

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Animal Sciences

What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata, Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison Troost, Samantha Rupert, Ariel Cyrus, Frank Paladino, Benjamin Dattilo, Winfried Peters Jul 2014

What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata, Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison Troost, Samantha Rupert, Ariel Cyrus, Frank Paladino, Benjamin Dattilo, Winfried Peters

Benjamin F. Dattilo

Olivella columellaris (Sowerby 1825) and O. semistriata (Gray 1839) are suspension feeding, swash surfing snails on tropical sandy beaches of the east Pacific. While they often are the numerically dominant macrofaunal element in their habitats, their biology is poorly understood; the two species actually have been confused in all of the few publications that address their ecology. Frequent misidentifications in publications and collections contributed also to an overestimation of the geographic overlap of the two species. To provide a sound taxonomic basis for further functional, ecological, and evolutionary investigations, we evaluated the validity of diagnostic traits in wild populations and …


What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata, Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison Troost, Samantha Rupert, Ariel Cyrus, Frank Paladino, Benjamin Dattilo, Winfried Peters Jun 2012

What Can We Learn From Confusing Olivella Columellaris And O. Semistriata, Two Key Species In Panamic Sandy Beach Ecosystems?, Alison Troost, Samantha Rupert, Ariel Cyrus, Frank Paladino, Benjamin Dattilo, Winfried Peters

Winfried S. Peters

Olivella columellaris (Sowerby 1825) and O. semistriata (Gray 1839) are suspension feeding, swash surfing snails on tropical sandy beaches of the east Pacific. While they often are the numerically dominant macrofaunal element in their habitats, their biology is poorly understood; the two species actually have been confused in all of the few publications that address their ecology. Frequent misidentifications in publications and collections contributed also to an overestimation of the geographic overlap of the two species. To provide a sound taxonomic basis for further functional, ecological, and evolutionary investigations, we evaluated the validity of diagnostic traits in wild populations and …


The Behavioural And Sensory Ecology Of Agaronia Propatula (Caenogastropoda, Olividae), A Swash-Surfing Predator On Sandy Beaches Of The Panamic Faunal Province, Ariel Cyrus, Samantha Rupert, Amy Silva, Monika Graf, Jeremy Rappaport, Frank Paladino, Winfried Peters Mar 2012

The Behavioural And Sensory Ecology Of Agaronia Propatula (Caenogastropoda, Olividae), A Swash-Surfing Predator On Sandy Beaches Of The Panamic Faunal Province, Ariel Cyrus, Samantha Rupert, Amy Silva, Monika Graf, Jeremy Rappaport, Frank Paladino, Winfried Peters

Winfried S. Peters

The genus Agaronia includes dominant predators in the eulittoral zone of dissipative sandy beaches of the tropical Eastern Pacific, which show specific adaptations to this environment such as swash-surfing locomotion. We studied A. propatula in its natural habitat in El Salvador and Costa Rica, and performed field experiments to obtain insights into its ecology, behaviour and sensory physiology. Agaronia propatula is not attracted by carrion and preys mostly on the ubiquitous beach snail Olivella semistriata. This, however, reflects community composition rather than prey specialization; A. propatula is an investigative hunter and will, quite literally, attack everything that moves (with …


Autotomy Of The Posterior Foot In Agaronia Propatula (Caenogastropoda: Olividae) Occurs In Animals That Are Fully Withdrawn Into Their Shells, Samantha D. Rupert, Winfried S. Peters Oct 2011

Autotomy Of The Posterior Foot In Agaronia Propatula (Caenogastropoda: Olividae) Occurs In Animals That Are Fully Withdrawn Into Their Shells, Samantha D. Rupert, Winfried S. Peters

Winfried S. Peters

This paper has no abstract; this is the first paragraph. Autotomy is the active shedding of a body part which occurs in a variety of emergency situations including attacks by predators (Stasek, 1967; McVean, 1975; Maginnis, 2006). The immediate advantage of autotomy – surviving an otherwise deadly attack – comes at a price, which may include physical, energetic, behavioural and reproductive costs (Cooper, 2003; Maginnis, 2006). While the evolutionary and ecological consequences of autotomy have been studied most thoroughly in lizards (Clause & Capaldi, 2006; Bateman & Fleming, 2009), the phenomenon also is known from numerous invertebrate taxa, where it …