Antalis vulgaris (da Costa, 1778) |
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North Sea to Mediterranean, Ireland to Mauritania. On sediments, subtidal to bathyal depths. Original taxon: Dentalium vulgare. Synonyms: striatum, tarentinum… « White with pink apex, yellow, sometimes black apex, nearly lusterless. » (B. Sahlmann 2006). « 30 fine striae at apex in adult. »
— Elafonisi channel, Kissamos, SW. Crete. 60mm. |
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« It is strong and rather thick, smooth, somewhat glossy, and, when live or fresh, white, with a wash or tinge of yellowish brown,
especially towards the lower end, or taper extremity. The inside is white and glossy. » – E. M. da Costa: Historia Naturalis Testaceorum Britanniae, London 1778. Beached. Gruissan, Occitania, S. France. 27mm. The rapidly increasing cross-section and the weak apical ribbing are the two main specific characters. |
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Elafonissi. 37-41mm. « Dentalium tarentinum: Shell less slender and rather more curved than D. entalis, not so apt to be segmented, very solid and opaque, mostly dull and lustreless. Sculpture: fine and regular longitudinal striae towards the point; and the entire surface appears, under a good magnifying power, covered with extremely numerous and delicate impressed lines in the same direction; there are also the usual marks of growth. Colour creamy, with sometimes a reddish-brown tinge, or clouded rings denoting the periodical lines of growth, and occasionally a pinkish hue near the point. Margin at the anterior end jagged, as in the other species; at the posterior end it is abruptly truncated, and furnished with a very short and small straight pipe, placed in the middle and having a circular orifice; it has no notch, groove, slit, or channel. […] In the adult the striae cover the whole surface, and not merely the narrower part; in the young these are fine ribs. Lister first noticed this shell as British, from Barnstaple Bay. Da Costa described and figured it as D. vulgare, a name which ought in justice to be preferred, because that given by Lamarck was not only long subsequent in point of date, but unsupported by a proper description. » – J. G. Jeffreys: British conchology Vol. III, London 1865. |
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8m deep, crawling on sand, south Kolokitha cove, Elounda peninsula, NW. of Kolpos Mirabellou, Lassíthi, N. Crete. 42mm. |
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7-9m deep, crawling on sand and debris, Ormos point, Ágios Nikólaos, Lassíthi. 48-55mm. |
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Dead collected on muddy sediments at 10m deep, at base of the slope of pebbles, southern bay, Dimos Archaias Epidavrou, NE. Peloponnese, Greece. 34mm. |
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30m deep, Punta de la Mona, east of La Herradura, Granada, Andalucia, S. Spain. 29mm. |
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Large adult washed ashore, Uvala Sabuša, southeastern coast of Molat island, Zadar Comitat, W. Croatia. 52mm. |
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On sediments at 5m, at the foot of the chapel, western shore of Kalyvaki bay, Georgioúpoli, east of Chaniá, N. Crete. 31mm. |
— back to Dentaliidae — |