Bathynerita naticoidea
Encyclopedia
Bathynerita naticoidea is a species of small sea snail
, a marine
gastropod mollusc in the family
Neritidae
, the nerites. This species is endemic to underwater cold seep
s (oil seeps and gas seeps) in the northern Gulf of Mexico
and in the Caribbean
.
The possible placement of this species within the closely allied family Phenacolepadidae
has been under discussion.
Species from these habitats can be collected by manned submersible
s or by remotely operated underwater vehicles.
of Barbados
in the Caribbean
in the upper continental slope, in depths from 400 to 2100 m.
Examples of localities include:
that can be closed with a calcareous operculum
. The round shell is low-spired and smoothly sculptured. Its aperture
has roughly a semicircular shape.
of Bathynerita naticoidea were published in 1996 and in 2008:
s.
Bathynerita naticoidea cannot move over the mud or on soft sediments, and it usually lives on mussel beds of Bathymodiolus childressi
.
These snails normally live in saline water
with salinity
30-50 ‰. Bathynerita naticoidea is a euryhaline
species. They were also found near a brine pool
seep in the Gulf of Mexico and they can survive salinity as high as 85 ‰, but they actively avoid brine
with salinity over 60 ‰ and they usually move upward in natural conditions, where the concentration of salt is lower. Bathynerita naticoidea has no osmoregulatory
ability when the salinity is too high, but it can survive high salinities, because it closes its operculum
.
of methanotrophic bacteria that grow on shells of mussels of Bathymodiolus childressi
, on decomposing periostracum
of these mussels and on byssal
fibers of them. It can also feed on detritus also on them.
Bathynerita naticoidea can detect
beds with mussel Bathymodiolus childressi
, because it is attracted by a water altered by this species of mussel, but the nature of the attractant was not discovered yet.
and formation of yolk (vitellogenesis
) of Bathynerita naticoidea was described by Eckelbarger & Young (1997). This was the first ultrastructural description of formation of yolk in today's clade Neritimorpha
. This process is similar to other gastropods.
Spermatogenesis
of Bathynerita naticoidea was described by Hodgson et al. (1998). Bathynerita naticoidea has sperm
(eusperm) of introsperm type (about 90 µm long and filiform), so it can be presumed, that the fertilisation
of Bathynerita naticoidea is internal.
Eggs are laid in round and white-rimmed egg capsules on various hard substrata: the dorsal part of the shells of the mussel Bathymodiolus childressi. They were found also on shells of mussel Tamu fisheri. There are then scars from these egg capsules on these mussels. Highest number of eggs are laid from December to February. Eggs are 135-145 μm in diameter. There are 25-180 eggs in one eggs capsule. The length of the egg capsule ranges from 1.2 to 2.9 mm.
During the development of the embryo, the egg capsule is changing color from creamy ivory color to dark purple color. The cleavage is holoblastic spiral cleavage as in other gastropods.
Veliger
larvae are hatched from eggs after four months of development from May to early July. Veliger is about 170 μm long (120-278 μm). Veligers feed on plankton
(planktotrophic) and they are probably obligate planktotrophs. They can swim with ciliated foot and they are swimming probably for at least eight months. Veliger have pigmented eyespots. Maybe the same chemosensor
y mechanisms for detecting mussel beds can be used by its larvae. Veliger in size 600-700 μm can undergo metamorphosis into a snail. Only two protoconch
s are known to be found in situ
and they measured 630 μm and 615 μm in length.
) species as an commensal on the gills of Bathynerita naticoidea. These fungi are externally attached to cells of gills. When this discovery was published in 1999, it was the first such association between fungus and gastropod from underwater seep community. The origin and function of this association is unknown.
There are no known bacterial symbionts with Bathynerita naticoidea (1999).
Other animals living in communities with Bathynerita naticoidea include:
Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....
, a marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
gastropod mollusc in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Neritidae
Neritidae
Neritidae, common name the nerites, is a taxonomic family of small to medium-sized saltwater and freshwater snails which have a gill and a distinctive operculum, marine, brackish water and freshwater gastropod mollusks in the order Neritoida....
, the nerites. This species is endemic to underwater cold seep
Cold seep
A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool...
s (oil seeps and gas seeps) in the northern Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
and in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
The possible placement of this species within the closely allied family Phenacolepadidae
Phenacolepadidae
Phenacolepadidae is a family of small sea snails or false limpets, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Cycloneritimorpha ....
has been under discussion.
Species from these habitats can be collected by manned submersible
Submersible
A submersible is a small vehicle designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vehicles known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is...
s or by remotely operated underwater vehicles.
Distribution
This species lives in cold seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico and in the accretionary wedgeAccretionary wedge
An accretionary wedge or accretionary prism is formed from sediments that are accreted onto the non-subducting tectonic plate at a convergent plate boundary...
of Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
in the upper continental slope, in depths from 400 to 2100 m.
Examples of localities include:
- "Bush Hill" (27°46.9478 N; 91°30.5266 W)
- methane seep "Brine Pool NR-1" in depth 650 m (27°43.415 N; 91°16.756 W) photo
- GC 234 (27°44.7318 N; 91°13.4355 W)
- MC 929
Description
Bathynerita naticoidea - like other species in the family Neritidae - has a shellGastropod shell
The gastropod shell is a shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail, one kind of mollusc. The gastropod shell is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not only for muscle attachment, but also for protection from predators and from mechanical damage...
that can be closed with a calcareous operculum
Operculum (gastropod)
The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...
. The round shell is low-spired and smoothly sculptured. Its aperture
Aperture (mollusc)
The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells: it is the main opening of the shell, where part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion, feeding, etc....
has roughly a semicircular shape.
Genetics
Partial genetic sequences of mitochondrionMitochondrion
In cell biology, a mitochondrion is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. These organelles range from 0.5 to 1.0 micrometers in diameter...
of Bathynerita naticoidea were published in 1996 and in 2008:
- 28S ribosomal RNA28S ribosomal RNA28S ribosomal RNA is the eukaryotic nuclear homologue of the prokaryotic 23S ribosomal RNA; this is the structural RNA for the large component of eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes, and thus one of the basic components of all eukaryotic cells....
- NCBI, NCBI - cytochrome-c oxidase IMain subunit of cytochrome c oxidaseCytochrome C and Quinol oxidase polypeptide I is main subunit of cytochrome c oxidase complex.Cytochrome c oxidase is a key enzyme in aerobic metabolism. Proton pumping heme-copper oxidases represent the terminal, energy-transfer enzymes of respiratory chains in prokaryotes and eukaryotes...
(COI) gene - NCBI - 16S ribosomal RNA16S ribosomal RNA16S ribosomal RNA is a component of the 30S subunit of prokaryotic ribosomes. It is approximately 1.5kb in length...
- NCBI
Ecology
Habitat
Bathynerita naticoidea lives at deep-sea cold seeps where hydrocarbons (oil and methane) are leaking out of the seafloor. Bathynerita naticoidea lives around underwater hydrocarbon seeps, and it is the most numerous (dominant) gastropod species in its area. This include oil seeps (= petroleum seeps) and gas seeps (= methane seeps). These seeps are also called cold seeps, in contrast to superheated hydrothermal ventHydrothermal vent
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal vents exist because the earth is both...
s.
Bathynerita naticoidea cannot move over the mud or on soft sediments, and it usually lives on mussel beds of Bathymodiolus childressi
Bathymodiolus childressi
Bathymodiolus childressi is a species of a deepwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk species in the family Mytilidae.Although this species has been known since 1985, it was formally described as a species in 1998.-Habitat:...
.
These snails normally live in saline water
Saline water
Saline water is a general term for water that contains a significant concentration of dissolved salts . The concentration is usually expressed in parts per million of salt....
with salinity
Salinity
Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...
30-50 ‰. Bathynerita naticoidea is a euryhaline
Euryhaline
Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline fish is the molly which can live in fresh, brackish, or salt water. The European shore crab is an example of a euryhaline invertebrate that can live in salt and brackish water...
species. They were also found near a brine pool
Brine pool
Brine pools are large areas of brine on the ocean basin. These pools are bodies of water that have a salinity three to five times greater than the surrounding ocean. For deep-sea brine pools, the source of the salt is the dissolution of large salt deposits through salt tectonics...
seep in the Gulf of Mexico and they can survive salinity as high as 85 ‰, but they actively avoid brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
with salinity over 60 ‰ and they usually move upward in natural conditions, where the concentration of salt is lower. Bathynerita naticoidea has no osmoregulatory
Osmoregulation
Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of an organism's fluids to maintain the homeostasis of the organism's water content; that is it keeps the organism's fluids from becoming too diluted or too concentrated. Osmotic pressure is a measure of the tendency of water to move...
ability when the salinity is too high, but it can survive high salinities, because it closes its operculum
Operculum (gastropod)
The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...
.
Feeding habits
Bathynerita naticoidea feeds on periphytonPeriphyton
Periphyton are a complex mixture of algae, cyanobacteria, heterotrophic microbes, and detritus that are attached to submerged surfaces in most aquatic ecosystems. It serves as an important food source for invertebrates, tadpoles, and some fish. It can also absorb contaminants; removing them from...
of methanotrophic bacteria that grow on shells of mussels of Bathymodiolus childressi
Bathymodiolus childressi
Bathymodiolus childressi is a species of a deepwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk species in the family Mytilidae.Although this species has been known since 1985, it was formally described as a species in 1998.-Habitat:...
, on decomposing periostracum
Periostracum
The periostracum is a thin organic coating or "skin" which is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including mollusks and brachiopods. Among mollusks it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in bivalves and gastropods, but it is also found in cephalopods such as the...
of these mussels and on byssal
Byssus
Byssus means both a silky filament by which certain molluscs attach themselves to hard surfaces, and a rare fabric, also called sea silk and its fibre source.-Word:...
fibers of them. It can also feed on detritus also on them.
Bathynerita naticoidea can detect
Sensory organs of gastropods
Sensory organs of gastropods include olfactory organs, eyes, statocysts and mechanoreceptors. Gastropods have no sense of hearing.- Olfactory organs :...
beds with mussel Bathymodiolus childressi
Bathymodiolus childressi
Bathymodiolus childressi is a species of a deepwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk species in the family Mytilidae.Although this species has been known since 1985, it was formally described as a species in 1998.-Habitat:...
, because it is attracted by a water altered by this species of mussel, but the nature of the attractant was not discovered yet.
Life cycle
OogenesisOogenesis
Oogenesis, ovogenesis or oögenesis is the creation of an ovum . It is the female form of gametogenesis. The male equivalent is spermatogenesis...
and formation of yolk (vitellogenesis
Vitellogenesis
Vitellogenesis is the process of yolk formation via nutrients being deposited in the oocyte, or female germ cell involved in reproduction. It starts when the fat body stimulates the release of juvenile hormones and produces vitellogenin protein. It occurs in all animal groups lower than the mammals...
) of Bathynerita naticoidea was described by Eckelbarger & Young (1997). This was the first ultrastructural description of formation of yolk in today's clade Neritimorpha
Neritimorpha
Neritimorpha is a taxonomic grouping, an unranked clade of snails, gastropod mollusks. This grouping includes land snails, sea snails, some deepwater limpets, and also freshwater snails...
. This process is similar to other gastropods.
Spermatogenesis
Spermatogenesis
Spermatogenesis is the process by which male primary germ cells undergo division, and produce a number of cells termed spermatogonia, from which the primary spermatocytes are derived. Each primary spermatocyte divides into two secondary spermatocytes, and each secondary spermatocyte into two...
of Bathynerita naticoidea was described by Hodgson et al. (1998). Bathynerita naticoidea has sperm
Sperm
The term sperm is derived from the Greek word sperma and refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell...
(eusperm) of introsperm type (about 90 µm long and filiform), so it can be presumed, that the fertilisation
Fertilisation
Fertilisation is the fusion of gametes to produce a new organism. In animals, the process involves the fusion of an ovum with a sperm, which eventually leads to the development of an embryo...
of Bathynerita naticoidea is internal.
Eggs are laid in round and white-rimmed egg capsules on various hard substrata: the dorsal part of the shells of the mussel Bathymodiolus childressi. They were found also on shells of mussel Tamu fisheri. There are then scars from these egg capsules on these mussels. Highest number of eggs are laid from December to February. Eggs are 135-145 μm in diameter. There are 25-180 eggs in one eggs capsule. The length of the egg capsule ranges from 1.2 to 2.9 mm.
During the development of the embryo, the egg capsule is changing color from creamy ivory color to dark purple color. The cleavage is holoblastic spiral cleavage as in other gastropods.
Veliger
Veliger
A veliger is the planktonic larva of many kinds of marine and freshwater gastropod molluscs, as well as most bivalve mollusks.- Description :...
larvae are hatched from eggs after four months of development from May to early July. Veliger is about 170 μm long (120-278 μm). Veligers feed on plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
(planktotrophic) and they are probably obligate planktotrophs. They can swim with ciliated foot and they are swimming probably for at least eight months. Veliger have pigmented eyespots. Maybe the same chemosensor
Chemosensor
A chemoreceptor, also known as chemosensor, is a sensory receptor that transduces a chemical signal into an action potential. In more general terms, a chemosensor detects certain chemical stimuli in the environment.- Classes :...
y mechanisms for detecting mussel beds can be used by its larvae. Veliger in size 600-700 μm can undergo metamorphosis into a snail. Only two protoconch
Protoconch
A protoconch is an embryonic or larval shell of some classes of molluscs, e.g., the initial chamber of an ammonite or the larval shell of a gastropod...
s are known to be found in situ
In situ
In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...
and they measured 630 μm and 615 μm in length.
Interspecific relationships
There lives a fungal filamentous ascomycete (phylum AscomycotaAscomycota
The Ascomycota are a Division/Phylum of the kingdom Fungi, and subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the Sac fungi. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species...
) species as an commensal on the gills of Bathynerita naticoidea. These fungi are externally attached to cells of gills. When this discovery was published in 1999, it was the first such association between fungus and gastropod from underwater seep community. The origin and function of this association is unknown.
There are no known bacterial symbionts with Bathynerita naticoidea (1999).
Other animals living in communities with Bathynerita naticoidea include:
- polychaetePolychaeteThe Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin. Indeed, polychaetes are sometimes referred to as bristle worms. More than 10,000...
Methanoaricia dendrobranchiata from family OrbiniidaeOrbiniidaeOrbiniidae is a family of polychaete worms. Orbiniids are mostly unselective deposit feeders on marine detritus. They can be found from the neritic zone to abyssal depths.... - mussels Bathymodiolus childressiBathymodiolus childressiBathymodiolus childressi is a species of a deepwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk species in the family Mytilidae.Although this species has been known since 1985, it was formally described as a species in 1998.-Habitat:...
from family MytilidaeMytilidaeMytilidae is a family of small to large saltwater mussels, marine bivalve mollusks in the order Mytiloida. It is the only family in the order...
Further reading
- Carney R. S. (1993). caption 7: "Heterotrophic Megafauna of Chemosynthetic Seep Ecosystems". In: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Management Service. (1993). Chemosynthetic Ecosystems Studies Interim Report. Prepared by Geochemical and Environmental Research Group. U. S. Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Mgmt. Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Regional Office, New Orleans, LA, 110 pp. PDF
- Zande J. M. & Carney R. S. (2001). "Population size structure and feeding biology of Bathynerita naticoidea Clarke 1989 (Gastropoda: Neritacea) from Gulf of Mexico hydrocarbon seeps". Gulf of Mexico Science 19(2): 107-118.