Thalassonerita is a monotypic genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Neritidae. Its sole species is Thalassonerita naticoidea. T. naticoidea is endemic to underwater cold seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean.Van Gaest A. L. (2006). "Ecology and early life history of Bathynerita naticoidea: evidence for long-distance larval dispersal of a cold seep gastropod". Thesis. Department of Biology and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/3717 Originally classified as Bathynerita, the genus was reassessed in 2019 after Thalassonerita was found to be a senior synonym of Bathynerita.
Distribution
T. naticoidea lives in cold seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico and in the accretionary wedge of Barbados in the CaribbeanVan Gaest A. L., Young C. M., Young J. J., Helms A. R. & Arellano S. M. (). "Physiological and behavioral responses of Bathynerita naticoidea (Gastropoda: Neritidae) and Methanoaricia dendrobranchiata (Polychaeta: Orbiniidae) to hypersaline conditions at a brine pool cold seep. Marine Ecology 28(1): 199 - 207. . in the upper continental slope, in depths from 400 to 2100 m. Minimum recorded depth is 541 m. Maximum recorded depth is 1135 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) GC 234 (27°44.7318 N; 91°13.4355 W) MC 929
Description T. naticoidea has a shell that can be closed with a calcareous operculum. The round shell is low-spired and smoothly sculptured. Its aperture has roughly a semicircular shape. The maximum recorded shell length is 16 mm.
Ecology
Habitat T. naticoidea lives at deep-sea cold seeps where hydrocarbons (oil and methane) are leaking out of the seafloor. T. naticoidea is the most numerous gastropod species in its area.Zande J. M. (1999). "An Ascomycete Commensal on the Gills of Bathynerita naticoidea, the Dominant Gastropod at Gulf of Mexico Hydrocarbon Seeps". Invertebrate Biology 118(1): 57-62. JSTOR They have also been found near a brine pool seep in the Gulf of Mexico. T. naticoidea cannot move over mud or on soft sediments,Van Gaest A. L. "Larval ecology of deep-sea snails. (slide 3)". accessed 1 May 2010. and usually lives on beds of Bathymodiolus childressi mussels.Dattagupta S., Martin J., Liao S., Carney R. S. & Fisher C. R. (2007). "Deep-sea hydrocarbon seep gastropod Bathynerita naticoidea responds to cues from the habitat-providing mussel Bathymodiolus childressi". Marine Ecology 28(1): 193-198. T. naticoidea can detect beds of B. childressi, because it is attracted by a water altered by this species of mussel, although the nature of the attractant is unknown.
As a euryhaline species, these snails normally live in saline water. Their preferred salinity is 30-50 ‰, and although they can survive salinity as high as 85 ‰, they actively avoid brine with salinity over 60 ‰. They usually move upward in natural conditions, where the concentration of salt is lower. T. naticoidea has no osmoregulatory ability when the salinity is too high, but it can survive high salinities, because it closes its operculum.
Feeding habits T. naticoidea feeds on periphyton of methanotrophic bacteria that grow on shells of mussels of B. childressi; the decomposing periostracum of these mussels; their byssal fibers; and their detritus.
Life cycle Oogenesis and formation of yolk (vitellogenesis) of T. naticoidea was described by Eckelbarger & Young (1997).Eckelbarger K. J. & Young C. M. (1997). "Ultrastructure of the ovary and oogenesis in the methane-seep mollusc, Bathynerita naticoidea (Gastropoda: Neritidae) from the Louisiana slope". Invertebrate Biology 116: 299-312. JSTOR. This was the first ultrastructural description of formation of yolk in today's clade Neritimorpha. This process is similar to other gastropods.
Spermatogenesis of T. naticoidea was described by Hodgson et al. (1998). T. naticoidea has sperm (eusperm) of introsperm type (about 90 μm long and filiform), so it can be presumed, that the fertilisation of T. 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.Gustafson R. G., Turner R. D., Lutz R. A. & Vrijenhoek R. C. (1998). "A new genus and five new species of mussels (Bivalvia, Mytilidae) from deep-sea sulfide/hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf of Mexico". Malacologia 40(1-2): 63-112. page 90 and page 96. 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 chemosensory 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 protoconchs are known to be found in situ and they measured 630 μm and 615 μm in length.
Interspecific relationships There lives a fungal filamentous ascomycete (phylum Ascomycota) species as a commensal on the gills of T. 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 T. naticoidea (1999).
Other animals living in communities with T. naticoidea include:
polychaete Methanoaricia dendrobranchiata from family Orbiniidae mussels Bathymodiolus childressi from family Mytilidae
Genetics Partial genetic sequences of mitochondrion of T. naticoidea were published in 1996McArthur A. G. (1996). "Molecular investigation of the evolutionary origins of hydrothermal vent gastropods". Thesis, University of Victoria, Canada. and in 2008:Frey M. A. & Vermeij G. J. (2008). "Molecular phylogenies and historical biogeography of a circumtropical group of gastropods (Genus: Nerita): implications for regional diversity patterns in the marine tropics". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48(3): 1067-1086.
28S ribosomal RNA cytochrome-c oxidase I (COI) gene 16S ribosomal RNA
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.
References