Description: Scutellastra mexicana (Broderip & Sowerby, 1829) - giant Mexican limpet (interior view) (public display, Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA) This species is also known as Patella mexicana. The gastropods (snails & slugs) are a group of molluscs that occupy marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Most gastropods have a calcareous external shell (the snails). Some lack a shell completely, or have reduced internal shells (the slugs & sea slugs & pteropods). Most members of the Gastropoda are marine. Most marine snails are herbivores (algae grazers) or predators/carnivores. The giant Mexican limpet shown above is part of the Panamic Province: "Much richer in species than its Caribbean counterpart, the tropical-water Panamic area extends from the Gulf of California, along the Pacific coast of Central America to Ecuador. Known for its wide tidal ranges, its sandy-mud shores and offshore waters abound in colorful murexes, cones, olives and cowries. Over 2,500 species are known from here, including the endemic tent olive." [info. from museum signage] Classification: Animalia, Mollusca, Gastropoda, Patellidae Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed/unspecified. Date: 3 January 2016, 17:02. Source:
Scutellastra mexicana (giant Mexican limpet) 4. Author:
James St. John.
