Oxystele sinensis

Oxystele sinensis, common name the pink-lipped topshell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Trochidae, the top snails.[2]

Oxystele sinensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Clade: Vetigastropoda
Order: Trochida
Superfamily: Trochoidea
Family: Trochidae
Genus: Oxystele
Species:
O. sinensis
Binomial name
Oxystele sinensis
(Gmelin, 1791) [1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Diloma sinensis (Gmelin, 1791)
  • Oxystele capensis (Gmelin, 1791)
  • Trochus sinensis Gmelin, 1791

Description

The size of the shell varies between 18 mm and 51 mm.

Distribution

This marine species occurs off False Bay to South Transkei, South Africa [3].

Ecology

Especially small individuals of this species that live in the intertidal zone are predated upon by rock lobsters. Larger individuals largely escape this predator by migrating to deeper waters, where they find a size refuge [3].

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gollark: > extra invariants
gollark: As in, Rust ones aren't that, or are that but wrong?
gollark: Rust is, of course, right, with its strings which are just vectors of bytes with extra invariants.
gollark: And can't append to strings above a certain length.

References
  1. Gmelin, Syst. Nat., xiii, p. 3583.
  2. Oxystele sinensis (Gmelin, 1791). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 1 May 2010.
  3. van Zyl, R.F.; Mayfield, S.; Pulfrich, A.; Griffiths, C.L. (1998). "Predation by West Coast rock lobsters (Jasus lalandii) on two species of winkle (Oxystele sinensis and Turbo cidaris)". South African Journal of Zoology. 33 (4): 203–209. doi:10.1080/02541858.1998.11448473.


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