Carinaria Explained

Carinaria is a genus of medium-sized floating sea snails, pelagic gastropod molluscs in the family Carinariidae.

Anatomy

The cylindrical and elongate body consists of three parts : a short proboscis, a well-developed trunk and tail region of variable size. The size of this tail goes from very small in Carinaria galea to very large in Carinaria cristata. The well-developed swimming fin is located in both sexes at the back of the trunk and has at its back margin a small fin sucker. The right tentacle is small or vestigial. The cuticle is thick and gelatinous.^[1] The shells are known as “Venus slippers.”

Species

The World Register of Marine Species includes the following species within the genus Carinaria:^[2]

• Carinaria cithara Benson, 1835 – harp carinaria
• Carinaria cristata (Linnaeus, 1767) – Indo-Pacific
• Carinaria galea Benson, 1835 – helmet carinaria; Indo-Pacific
• Carinaria japonica Okutani, 1955 – Japan, North Pacific
• Carinaria lamarckii Blainville, 1817
• Carinaria pseudorugosa Vayssière, 1904

Species brought into synonymy:

• Carinaria atlantica Adams & Reeve, 1850: synonym of Carinaria lamarckii Blainville, 1817
• Carinaria australis Quoy & Gaimard, 1833: synonym of Carinaria lamarckii Blainville, 1817
• Carinaria challengeri Bonnevie, 1920: synonym of Carinaria pseudorugosa Vayssière, 1904
• Carinaria grimaldii Vayssière, 1904: synonym of Carinaria lamarckii Blainville, 1817
• Carinaria lamarcki Péron & Lesueur, 1810: synonym of Carinaria lamarckii Blainville, 1817
• Carinaria mediterranea Blainville, 1825: synonym of Carinaria lamarckii Blainville, 1817
• Carinaria punctata d'Orbigny, 1836: synonym of Carinaria lamarckii Blainville, 1817

Further reading

• Seapy, Roger R. 2008. Carinaria Lamarck 1801. Version 12 July 2008, Tree of Life Web Project: Carinaria
  • Powell A. W. B., New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979
• Bonnevie, K. 1920. Heteropoda collected during the "Michael Sars" North Atlantic Deep-Sea Expedition 1910 Report on the Scientific Results of the "Michael Sars" North Atlantic Deep Sea Expedition 1910 3(2) 1–16, pls. 1–5. [True date: 28 Feb 1920.]
• Malacolog Version 4.1.0 : A Database of Western Atlantic Marine Mollusca

Notes and References

1. Book: Lalli, Carol M. . Gilmer, Ronald W. . Pelagic Snails: The Biology of Holoplanktonic Gastropod Mollusks . 1989 . Stanford University Press . 978-0-8047-1490-7 . 30.
2. Bouchet, Philippe . 2015 . Carinaria Lamarck, 1801 . 137746 . 2015-04-17 .