The Perfect Little Rock Pool

by Miroslava Jurcik

Title

The Perfect Little Rock Pool

Artist

Miroslava Jurcik

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

The perfect little rock pool of Botany Bay, La Perouse, Sydney, Australia. It is simply perfect bec it showing you all the common snails found at these shores and in many others intertidal rocky pools in Australian shores.
So what can we see:
1. Zebra Snail (Austrocochlea Porcata): This little cute guy is ubiquitous around the NSW coast. In Latin, his name translates to ‘southern broad-ridged spiral shell’ because the ridges on his shell are wider than the furrows in between. He looks like a little zebra, so you should spot him easily with his black-and-white striped pattern and no two individuals are identical. He eats algae, and fascinatingly, at certain times of the year the algae he eats contains a substance he excretes into its shelll to form black stripes rather than white ones. He comes from the family of sea snails known as Trochidae or ‘top snails’, because they all look like spinning tops.
2. Turban Snail or Common Warner (Turbo undulata): Called a Turban Snail because of the pattern and shape of its shell, the common name derives from their resemblance to a turban. Undulata describes the wavy shape of part of the spiral. This medium- to large-sized snail feeds on algae on rock platforms. They can live up to 10 metres under water, they grow up to 5 cm. I think they the lighter brown twisty shells.
3. The Black Nerite (Nerita melanotragus) : is a species of gastropod which grows to 1 to 3 cm, I think its the little black shells. He also grazes pn plant material, bacteria, and microalgae when submerge. When babies hatch, they live on the back of the adult snail’s shell for about 4 months.
4. Little Blue Periwinkle (Nodilittorina unifasciata): These tiny blue snails are about the size of your little fingernail and are the most abundant molluscs on the rocky shore, generally found toward the high-tide mark. They about 1.5cm long, and as the name suggest they have a blue shell. They can travel up to 12 metres in search of food. According to WoRMS, this name has not been accepted (innactive taxon). And the parent name there is Austrolittorina unifasciata which has few subspeicies. However I have find the info about the taxon in Australian museum.

Please be careful exploring rock pools in Australia bec blue ring octopus can be hiding there, and if you touch it, you could die within 20 minutes.

This image is copyrighted, you welcome to share or embed as longer link to my work is included, however stealing the image and using it without credit/ link is prohibited and will be prosecuted to the full extend of the law !!

ref. https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/molluscs/zebra-snail/
https://seashellsofnsw.org.au/Trochidae/Pages/Trochinae/Austrocochlea_porcata.htm
https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/molluscs/turban-snail/
https://www.gbri.org.au/SpeciesList/StudentProject2017%7CEmersonBlairPollard.aspx
https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/molluscs/little-blue-periwinkle/

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October 11th, 2019

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