Thursday 2 July 2015

Creature 275: Cyphoma gibbosum

Colorful snail with a boring shell

Cyphoma gibbosum is a brightly colored sea snail.

It has been given the common name flamingo tongue snail, although I can't imagine why. I don't think it looks anything like a flamingo's tongue.The interesting thing about this snail is that while it may look like it has a pretty shell, it actually has quite a boring plain white shell. The patterns are actually the color of the snails mantle which has grown over the shell. Its purpose is to provide a large surface area for the snail to absorb Oxygen from the water.


Distribution:
The flamingo tongue snail is known from the Caribbean sea and some coastal areas of Eastern South America.

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Order: Caenogastropoda
Family: Ovulidae
Genus: Cyphoma
Species: Cyphoma  gibbosum

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