View allAll Photos Tagged sinistrality
• タイワンギセル / TAIWAN-GISERU
• Door snails
Scientific classification:
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
Subclass:Heterobranchia
Superorder:Eupulmonata
Order:Stylommatophora
Suborder:Helicina
Infraorder:Clausilioidei
Superfamily:Clausilioidea
Family:Clausiliidae
SubFamily: Phaedusinae
Genus: Formosana (Oospira)
Species: formosensis
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
From my collection
This shell is a dextral, right handed. A sinistral (left-handed) has the aperture (opening) on the left as the spiral points to the top.
• 堀川氏煙管蝸牛 (Chinese)
• ホリカワギセル / HORIKAWA-GISERU (Japanese)
• Door snails
Scientific classification:
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
Subclass:Heterobranchia
Superorder:Eupulmonata
Order:Stylommatophora
Suborder:Helicina
Infraorder:Clausilioidei
Superfamily:Clausilioidea
Family:Clausiliidae
SubFamily: Phaedusinae
Genus: Changphaedusa
Species: C. horikawai
Yilan, Taiwan
From my collection
• オボロナミギセル
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Mollusca
Class:Gastropoda
(unranked):clade Heterobranchia
clade Euthyneura
clade Panpulmonata
clade Eupulmonata
clade Stylommatophora
informal group Sigmurethra
Superfamily:Clausilioidea
Family:Clausiliidae
Subfamily: Phaedusinae
Tribe: Phaedusini
Genus: Stereophaedusa
Species: Stereophaedusa japonica
Subspecies: S. japonica perobscura
Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan
Clausiliidae, also known by their common name the door snails, are a taxonomic family of small, very elongate, mostly left-handed, air-breathing land snails, sinistral terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks.
Most species of Clausiliidae have an anatomical structure known as a clausilium, which enables the snail to close off the aperture of the shell with a sliding "door".
I am still regularly seeing Crossbills but they seem to have dispersed from the places that were easy to photograph them. Probably because the long period without rain means the puddles have all dried up, which were a big draw for them. This one is a male with the attractive red plumage, about to feed on Scots Pine cones. You can see that he is "right-beaked" or dextral, because his lower mandible swings to the right. Left-beaked birds are known as sinistrals, but unlike right and left-handedness in humans, there seems to be an even split.
Crossbill bills can be either left or right handed, and (in Common Crossbill) there is a pretty even split between both types. The upper mandible is fixed to the skull and is centrally placed but it is the lower mandible that can swing either way. The ones like this where the lower mandible goes to the left are known as sinistrals and when the lower mandible points right they are known as dextrals. I have posted a dextral Crossbill in the comments below for comparison. Sinister and Dexter are Latin terms for left and right and derived words are still in use today. Left-handedness was once associated with a shifty personality and the word sinister comes from that. Dextrous, meaning adept or nimble-fingered comes for the word for right-handedness. Back to Crossbills, as well as having an asymmetrical beak, they also have more developed musculature on one side of the lower cheek, and left and right handed birds approach cones from different directions. This one's a female with green plumage while adult males are red. The scientific name is Loxia curvirostra. Loxia means oblique or crosswise, and curvirostra means curved beak. I photographed this one near Holmfirth in West Yorkshire.
Taking a break from my Baja uploads, here's a female Crossbill that I took today not far from home. The upper mandible is fixed centrally but the lower mandible can swing to the left or right, and this one swings to the right, and is known as a dextral (left swingers are known as sinistrals). The Scientific name is Loxia curvirostra. Loxia means oblique or crosswise, and curvirostra means curved beak. The name Crossbill was seemingly first used by John Ray in 1678, when he called it the "Shell-apple or Cross-bill". Although Walter Charleston ten years earlier (1668) called it Cross-beak. And Christopher Merrett, who published a nature book eleven years before Ray in 1667 only used the name Shell-apple, apparently from its habit of occasionally turning up during irruptions from Scandinavia and smashing up apples to get at the pips. I have never heard of Crossbills doing this but it is worth remembering there would be scarcely any conifers away from north Scotland during the seventeenth century. So irruptive birds were probably starving, having already left Scandinavia because of a failed cone crop.
The lightning whelk, scientific name Sinistrofulgur perversum, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It eats mostly bivalves
Crossbill bills can be either left or right handed, and (in Common Crossbill) there is a pretty even split between both types. The upper mandible is fixed to the skull and is centrally placed but it is the lower mandible that can swing either way. The ones like this where the lower mandible so obviously swings to the left (its left) are known as sinistrals and when the lower mandible points right they are known as dextrals. Sinister and Dexter are Latin terms for left and right and derived words are still in use today. Left-handedness was once associated with a shifty personality and the word sinister comes from that. Dexterous, meaning adept or nimble-fingered comes for the word for right-handedness. Back to Crossbills, as well as having an asymmetrical beak, they also have more developed musculature on one side of the lower cheek, and left and right handed birds approach cones from different directions. The Scientific name is Loxia curvirostra. Loxia means oblique or crosswise, and curvirostra means curved beak. The name Crossbill was seemingly first used by John Ray in 1678, when he called it the "Shell-apple or Cross-bill". Although Walter Charleston ten years earlier (1668) called it Cross-beak. And Christopher Merrett, who published a nature book eleven years before Ray in 1667 only used the name Shell-apple, apparently from its habit of occasionally turning up during irruptions from Scandinavia and smashing up apples to get at the pips. I have never heard of Crossbills doing this but it is worth remembering there would be scarcely any conifers away from north Scotland during the seventeenth century. So irruptive birds were probably starving, having already left Scandinavia because of a failed cone crop. And finally, many years ago (in 1985) I once saw a rare migrant Nutcracker in Suffolk which was smashing up apples to reach the pips, ignoring all the juicy bits. Nutcracker is another pine seed feeder that only visits Britain when the cone crop fails (in Siberia). Here's a Nutcracker I took in China www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/45587118575/in/photolist
I thought this was quite a dramatic shot as the female Crossbill perched really close then opened her beak while looking straight at me. This really shows the leftwards swing of the lower mandible. It was taken not far from where I live in West Yorkshire.
Common fresh water snail. The spire is upright on the left and the opening is on the left. On the right another shell is upside down. Because the spire is sunken the unusual left handedness is often not noticed.
This Crossbill does look rather sinister as it was creeping towards me on a mossy branch, but that is not what I meant. Crossbill bills can be either left or right handed, and (in Common Crossbill) there is a pretty even split between both types. The upper mandible is fixed to the skull and is centrally placed but it is the lower mandible that can swing either way. The ones like this where the lower mandible goes to the left (its left) are known as sinistrals and when the lower mandible points right they are known as dextrals. Sinister and Dexter are Latin terms for left and right and derived words are still in use today. Left-handedness was once associated with a shifty personality and the word sinister comes from that. Dexterous, meaning adept or nimble-fingered comes for the word for right-handedness. Back to Crossbills, as well as having an asymmetrical beak, they also have more developed musculature on one side of the lower cheek, and left and right handed birds approach cones from different directions. The Scientific name is Loxia curvirostra. Loxia means oblique or crosswise, and curvirostra means curved beak. The name Crossbill was seemingly first used by John Ray in 1678, when he called it the "Shell-apple or Cross-bill". Although Walter Charleston ten years earlier (1668) called it Cross-beak. And Christopher Merrett, who published a nature book eleven years before Ray in 1667 only used the name Shell-apple, apparently from its habit of occasionally turning up during irruptions from Scandinavia and smashing up apples to get at the pips. I have never heard of Crossbills doing this but it is worth remembering there would be scarcely any conifers away from north Scotland during the seventeenth century. So irruptive birds were probably starving, having already left Scandinavia because of a failed cone crop. And finally, many years ago (in 1985) I once saw a rare migrant Nutcracker in Suffolk which was smashing up apples to reach the pips, ignoring all the juicy bits. Nutcracker is another pine seed feeder that only visits Britain when the cone crop fails (in Siberia).
Note the very small white annelid worms (Spiral Tube Worms) Spirobis sp. just under the limpet. Also note that the worms are sinistral (left handed) spirals.
This type of metamorphic rock, a probable tectonic breccia, should be of interest to structural geologists and those who are curious about earth science. (Scale: the horizontal white lines (intrusive veins) are about 1 to 3 cm wide.)
The sigmoidal form (flattened-S shape) of some of the veins suggests left-lateral (sinistral) displacement. Note how veinlets inside the larger black clasts at left are following an X-pattern of brittle fractures and were likely in the process of disaggregating (fragmenting) these larger clasts. This suggests that some (or all?) of the smaller dark clasts were created by the fragmentation of larger dark clasts. Careful examination of the fabric/texture of this breccia shows that in some small areas, closely spaced clasts/fragments fit together in jigsaw fashion.
See other images of this breccia in my "Geology in building stone" album.
C. J.R. Devaney
Common fresh water snail. The spire is upright on the left and the opening is on the left. On the right another shell is upside down. Because the spire is sunken the unusual left handedness is often not noticed.
Ground Beetle, Carabus granulatus.
Body length; 16-23mm.
Habitat; Typically a species of wetland margins, found in wet fields, river margins, lake shores and permanently damp and shaded woodland. Across much of its range it also occurs in upland and mountain regions, among peat and blanket bogs etc.
Widespread in much of Britain, including all the islands except Orkney and Shetland, but never really common. It occurs throughout Europe, north to mid-Scandinavian latitudes and east to the Pacific and Japan. Following introductions from 1890, it is now also widespread across the United States and Canadian border regions.
A narrow and elongate species, the upper part of this beetle is shiny, usually entirely dark metallic bronze, but greenish or bluish specimens do occur. Legs are long and robust, middle and hind legs slender, fore-legs are broader. All tibiae have two strong apical spurs, fore-tibiae without an internal antennal-cleaning notch. The legs are usualy dark, although pale-legged forms occur on the continent. The two wing cases, (elytra ), are subparallel with "chain link" longitudinal grooves. The head is long and narrow with robust projecting mandibles, prominent and convex eyes and long palps and antennae.
Active from March/April through to Autumn, this is one of the few species of ground beetle that hasn't completely lost its ability to fly. In the UK the species has reduced wings and is flightless, but in central Europe fully winged specimens have been observed to fly. However, in general this nocturnal beetle remains on the ground where they prey on insects and worms but predominantley snails. During the day they hide under tree trunks or stones. They overwinter under bark, among litter or under logs etc, although they may also become active during mild Winter spells.
Mating begins in April and egg laying a little later. The females lay about forty eggs, individual eggs laid in burrows a few cm deep which are then filled with soil. The eggs will hatch within a week or two and the nocturnal and predatory larvae develop through the Summer. Passing through three instars the larvae will be fully grown within 40 to 60 days. Pupation occurs in the ground from late Summer and the new-generation of adults appear in the Autumn. Overwintered adults may reproduce in the following Spring but some, perhaps a majority, do not and will overwinter a second time before doing so.
It is thought they may be adapted to feed primarily on dextral snails, those that coil to the right and which comprise more than 80% of European specimens. As most of the beetles have the left mandible overlaying the right this may be an adaptation to hunting dextral snails, sinistral snails, those that coil to the left, being largely immune to attack.
Unlike some other snail eating beetles, Carabus granulatus doesn't attack snails with digestive enzymes but simply reaches into the shell with its mandibles, butchers it extensively and pulls it from the shell.
Physella acuta is a species of small, left-handed or sinistral, air-breathing freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Physidae.
This is a Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum), a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc species that is native to western Europe, and has been introduced to habitats around the world.
They're capable of moving at a speed of around 1 metre per hour, and eat a variety of vegetation, earning them something of a bad reputation with gardeners and farmers - however, as they prefer to eat decaying plants, they are a vital part of many ecosystems worldwide.
Fun fact! Snail shells can coil in either direction, but by far and away the most common has the coil going rightwards (clockwise / dextral). Snails that are left-coiled (anti-clockwise / sinistral) cannot mate with snails that are right-coiled. Unfortunately for the lefties, they are extremely rare, with their sinistral form being as a result of a genetic mutation.
Snails are hermaphrodites, and if they are unable to find a sexual partner, are capable of asexual reproduction (self-fertilization). The Garden Snail lays around 80 eggs around two weeks after fertilization occurs, and usually lays around 6 clutches of eggs per year.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rift_Valley
The Jordan Rift Valley (Arabic: الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr; Hebrew: בקעת הירדן Bik'at HaYarden) is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. This geographic region includes the Jordan River, Jordan Valley, Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, the lowest land elevation on Earth. The valley continues to the Red Sea, incorporating Arabah and the shorelines of the Gulf of Aqaba.
Origins and physical features
The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago in the Miocene epoch (23.8 - 5.3 Myr ago) when the Arabian tectonic plate moved northward and then eastward away from Africa. One million years later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.
The lowest point in the Jordan Rift Valley is at the shores of the Dead Sea, which is also the lowest point (on land) on the surface of the earth at 400 meters below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000 meters in the west, and similarly in the east, the rift is a significant topographic feature over which few narrow paved roads and difficult mountain tracks lead.[1] The valley north of the Dead Sea has long been a site of agriculture because of water available from the Jordan River and numerous springs located on the valley's flanks.
The Dead Sea Transform
The plate boundary which extends through the valley is variously called the Dead Sea Transform or Dead Sea Rift. The boundary separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, connecting the divergent plate boundary in the Red Sea (the Red Sea Rift) to the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey.[2]
The interpretation of the tectonic regime that led to the development of the Dead Sea Transform is highly contested. Some consider it as a transform fault that accommodates a 105 km northwards displacement of the Arabian plate,[3] and trace its structural evolution to the early Miocene. Others presume that the Rift is an incipient oceanic spreading center, the northern extension of the Red Sea Rift,[4] and the displacement along it is oblique, with approximately 10–15 km of extension in addition to the more substantial left lateral (sinistral) strike-slip. The evolution of the rift, according to this latter model, started in the late Miocene with the linear series of basins that propagated gradually along their axes to form the present rift valley.[5] The elucidation of the nature of the Dead Sea Transform/Rift is a matter of ongoing study and discussion.
Population
The Jordanian population of the valley is over 85,000 people,[6] most of whom are farmers, and 80% of the farms in the Jordanian part of the valley are family farms no larger than 30 dunams (3 ha, 7.4 ac).[7]
Some 47,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank in about twenty permanent communities, most of them reside in the city of Jericho. Thousands of Bedouins also live in temporary communities.[8]
About 11,000 Israelis live in 17 kibbutzim that form part of the Emek HaYarden Regional Council in Israel,[9] while an additional 7,500 live in twenty-six Israeli settlements and five Nahal encampments that have been established in the part of the Jordan Valley that lies in the West Bank.[8][10]
Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, the valley's Jordanian side was home to about 60,000 people largely engaged in agriculture and pastoralism.[6] By 1971, the population had declined to 5,000 as a result of the war and the 1970-71 conflict between the Palestinian guerrillas and the Jordanian armed forces.[6] Investments by the Jordanian government in the region allowed the population to rebound to over 85,000 by 1979.[6]
Since the end of the 1967 war, every Israeli government has considered the western Jordan Valley to be the eastern border of Israel with Jordan.[8] The 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan defines the international border between the countries on the Jordan river in the center of the Jordan valley.
Agriculture
The Jordan River rises from several sources, mainly the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria. It flows down into the Sea of Galilee, 212 meters below sea level, and then drains into the Dead Sea.[11] South of the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley turns into the hot, dry Arabah valley.[11]
The Jordan Valley is several degrees warmer than adjacent areas, and its year-round agricultural climate, fertile soils and water supply made it a site for agriculture dating to about 10,000 years ago. By about 3000 BCE, produce from the valley was being exported to neighboring regions.[11] The area's fertile lands were chronicled in the Hebrew Bible, where it was the site of several miracles for the people of Israel, such as the Jordan River stopping its flow to allow the Jewish people, led by the Ark of the Covenant, to pass over. The Jordan River is revered by Christians as the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ.[11]
In the last few decades, modern methods of farming have vastly expanded the agricultural output of the area.[11] The construction of the East Ghor Canal by Jordan in 1950s (now known as the King Abdullah Canal), which runs down the east bank of the Jordan Valley for 69 kilometers, has brought new areas under irrigation.[11] The introduction of portable greenhouses has brought about a sevenfold increase in productivity, allowing Jordan to export large amounts of fruit and vegetables year-round.
a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rift_Valley" rel="nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rift_Valley
The Jordan Rift Valley (Arabic: الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr; Hebrew: בקעת הירדן Bik'at HaYarden) is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. This geographic region includes the Jordan River, Jordan Valley, Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, the lowest land elevation on Earth. The valley continues to the Red Sea, incorporating Arabah and the shorelines of the Gulf of Aqaba.
Origins and physical features
The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago in the Miocene epoch (23.8 - 5.3 Myr ago) when the Arabian tectonic plate moved northward and then eastward away from Africa. One million years later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.
The lowest point in the Jordan Rift Valley is at the shores of the Dead Sea, which is also the lowest point (on land) on the surface of the earth at 400 meters below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000 meters in the west, and similarly in the east, the rift is a significant topographic feature over which few narrow paved roads and difficult mountain tracks lead.[1] The valley north of the Dead Sea has long been a site of agriculture because of water available from the Jordan River and numerous springs located on the valley's flanks.
The Dead Sea Transform
The plate boundary which extends through the valley is variously called the Dead Sea Transform or Dead Sea Rift. The boundary separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, connecting the divergent plate boundary in the Red Sea (the Red Sea Rift) to the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey.[2]
The interpretation of the tectonic regime that led to the development of the Dead Sea Transform is highly contested. Some consider it as a transform fault that accommodates a 105 km northwards displacement of the Arabian plate,[3] and trace its structural evolution to the early Miocene. Others presume that the Rift is an incipient oceanic spreading center, the northern extension of the Red Sea Rift,[4] and the displacement along it is oblique, with approximately 10–15 km of extension in addition to the more substantial left lateral (sinistral) strike-slip. The evolution of the rift, according to this latter model, started in the late Miocene with the linear series of basins that propagated gradually along their axes to form the present rift valley.[5] The elucidation of the nature of the Dead Sea Transform/Rift is a matter of ongoing study and discussion.
Population
The Jordanian population of the valley is over 85,000 people,[6] most of whom are farmers, and 80% of the farms in the Jordanian part of the valley are family farms no larger than 30 dunams (3 ha, 7.4 ac).[7]
Some 47,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank in about twenty permanent communities, most of them reside in the city of Jericho. Thousands of Bedouins also live in temporary communities.[8]
About 11,000 Israelis live in 17 kibbutzim that form part of the Emek HaYarden Regional Council in Israel,[9] while an additional 7,500 live in twenty-six Israeli settlements and five Nahal encampments that have been established in the part of the Jordan Valley that lies in the West Bank.[8][10]
Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, the valley's Jordanian side was home to about 60,000 people largely engaged in agriculture and pastoralism.[6] By 1971, the population had declined to 5,000 as a result of the war and the 1970-71 conflict between the Palestinian guerrillas and the Jordanian armed forces.[6] Investments by the Jordanian government in the region allowed the population to rebound to over 85,000 by 1979.[6]
Since the end of the 1967 war, every Israeli government has considered the western Jordan Valley to be the eastern border of Israel with Jordan.[8] The 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan defines the international border between the countries on the Jordan river in the center of the Jordan valley.
Agriculture
The Jordan River rises from several sources, mainly the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria. It flows down into the Sea of Galilee, 212 meters below sea level, and then drains into the Dead Sea.[11] South of the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley turns into the hot, dry Arabah valley.[11]
The Jordan Valley is several degrees warmer than adjacent areas, and its year-round agricultural climate, fertile soils and water supply made it a site for agriculture dating to about 10,000 years ago. By about 3000 BCE, produce from the valley was being exported to neighboring regions.[11] The area's fertile lands were chronicled in the Hebrew Bible, where it was the site of several miracles for the people of Israel, such as the Jordan River stopping its flow to allow the Jewish people, led by the Ark of the Covenant, to pass over. The Jordan River is revered by Christians as the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ.[11]
In the last few decades, modern methods of farming have vastly expanded the agricultural output of the area.[11] The construction of the East Ghor Canal by Jordan in 1950s (now known as the King Abdullah Canal), which runs down the east bank of the Jordan Valley for 69 kilometers, has brought new areas under irrigation.[11] The introduction of portable greenhouses has brought about a sevenfold increase in productivity, allowing Jordan to export large amounts of fruit and vegetables year-round.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rift_Valley
The Jordan Rift Valley (Arabic: الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr; Hebrew: בקעת הירדן Bik'at HaYarden) is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. This geographic region includes the Jordan River, Jordan Valley, Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, the lowest land elevation on Earth. The valley continues to the Red Sea, incorporating Arabah and the shorelines of the Gulf of Aqaba.
Origins and physical features
The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago in the Miocene epoch (23.8 - 5.3 Myr ago) when the Arabian tectonic plate moved northward and then eastward away from Africa. One million years later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.
The lowest point in the Jordan Rift Valley is at the shores of the Dead Sea, which is also the lowest point (on land) on the surface of the earth at 400 meters below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000 meters in the west, and similarly in the east, the rift is a significant topographic feature over which few narrow paved roads and difficult mountain tracks lead.[1] The valley north of the Dead Sea has long been a site of agriculture because of water available from the Jordan River and numerous springs located on the valley's flanks.
The Dead Sea Transform
The plate boundary which extends through the valley is variously called the Dead Sea Transform or Dead Sea Rift. The boundary separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, connecting the divergent plate boundary in the Red Sea (the Red Sea Rift) to the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey.[2]
The interpretation of the tectonic regime that led to the development of the Dead Sea Transform is highly contested. Some consider it as a transform fault that accommodates a 105 km northwards displacement of the Arabian plate,[3] and trace its structural evolution to the early Miocene. Others presume that the Rift is an incipient oceanic spreading center, the northern extension of the Red Sea Rift,[4] and the displacement along it is oblique, with approximately 10–15 km of extension in addition to the more substantial left lateral (sinistral) strike-slip. The evolution of the rift, according to this latter model, started in the late Miocene with the linear series of basins that propagated gradually along their axes to form the present rift valley.[5] The elucidation of the nature of the Dead Sea Transform/Rift is a matter of ongoing study and discussion.
Population
The Jordanian population of the valley is over 85,000 people,[6] most of whom are farmers, and 80% of the farms in the Jordanian part of the valley are family farms no larger than 30 dunams (3 ha, 7.4 ac).[7]
Some 47,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank in about twenty permanent communities, most of them reside in the city of Jericho. Thousands of Bedouins also live in temporary communities.[8]
About 11,000 Israelis live in 17 kibbutzim that form part of the Emek HaYarden Regional Council in Israel,[9] while an additional 7,500 live in twenty-six Israeli settlements and five Nahal encampments that have been established in the part of the Jordan Valley that lies in the West Bank.[8][10]
Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, the valley's Jordanian side was home to about 60,000 people largely engaged in agriculture and pastoralism.[6] By 1971, the population had declined to 5,000 as a result of the war and the 1970-71 conflict between the Palestinian guerrillas and the Jordanian armed forces.[6] Investments by the Jordanian government in the region allowed the population to rebound to over 85,000 by 1979.[6]
Since the end of the 1967 war, every Israeli government has considered the western Jordan Valley to be the eastern border of Israel with Jordan.[8] The 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan defines the international border between the countries on the Jordan river in the center of the Jordan valley.
Agriculture
The Jordan River rises from several sources, mainly the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria. It flows down into the Sea of Galilee, 212 meters below sea level, and then drains into the Dead Sea.[11] South of the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley turns into the hot, dry Arabah valley.[11]
The Jordan Valley is several degrees warmer than adjacent areas, and its year-round agricultural climate, fertile soils and water supply made it a site for agriculture dating to about 10,000 years ago. By about 3000 BCE, produce from the valley was being exported to neighboring regions.[11] The area's fertile lands were chronicled in the Hebrew Bible, where it was the site of several miracles for the people of Israel, such as the Jordan River stopping its flow to allow the Jewish people, led by the Ark of the Covenant, to pass over. The Jordan River is revered by Christians as the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ.[11]
In the last few decades, modern methods of farming have vastly expanded the agricultural output of the area.[11] The construction of the East Ghor Canal by Jordan in 1950s (now known as the King Abdullah Canal), which runs down the east bank of the Jordan Valley for 69 kilometers, has brought new areas under irrigation.[11] The introduction of portable greenhouses has brought about a sevenfold increase in productivity, allowing Jordan to export large amounts of fruit and vegetables year-round.
Piñon pine either grow straight or spin to the right, or dextrally. This piñon, which was probably killed by lightning and scorched by fire, is clearly dextral.
Limber pines and subalpine fir grow straight or spin to the left, sinistrally. Ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir and Engelmann spruce grow straight or spin to the right.
Spiral growth is known to be under simple genetic control in one conifer, but none of the species mentioned above has been examined to determine if spiral growth is genetic.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rift_Valley
The Jordan Rift Valley (Arabic: الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr; Hebrew: בקעת הירדן Bik'at HaYarden) is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. This geographic region includes the Jordan River, Jordan Valley, Hula Valley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, the lowest land elevation on Earth. The valley continues to the Red Sea, incorporating Arabah and the shorelines of the Gulf of Aqaba.
Origins and physical features
The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago in the Miocene epoch (23.8 - 5.3 Myr ago) when the Arabian tectonic plate moved northward and then eastward away from Africa. One million years later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan Rift Valley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.
The lowest point in the Jordan Rift Valley is at the shores of the Dead Sea, which is also the lowest point (on land) on the surface of the earth at 400 meters below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000 meters in the west, and similarly in the east, the rift is a significant topographic feature over which few narrow paved roads and difficult mountain tracks lead.[1] The valley north of the Dead Sea has long been a site of agriculture because of water available from the Jordan River and numerous springs located on the valley's flanks.
The Dead Sea Transform
The plate boundary which extends through the valley is variously called the Dead Sea Transform or Dead Sea Rift. The boundary separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, connecting the divergent plate boundary in the Red Sea (the Red Sea Rift) to the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey.[2]
The interpretation of the tectonic regime that led to the development of the Dead Sea Transform is highly contested. Some consider it as a transform fault that accommodates a 105 km northwards displacement of the Arabian plate,[3] and trace its structural evolution to the early Miocene. Others presume that the Rift is an incipient oceanic spreading center, the northern extension of the Red Sea Rift,[4] and the displacement along it is oblique, with approximately 10–15 km of extension in addition to the more substantial left lateral (sinistral) strike-slip. The evolution of the rift, according to this latter model, started in the late Miocene with the linear series of basins that propagated gradually along their axes to form the present rift valley.[5] The elucidation of the nature of the Dead Sea Transform/Rift is a matter of ongoing study and discussion.
Population
The Jordanian population of the valley is over 85,000 people,[6] most of whom are farmers, and 80% of the farms in the Jordanian part of the valley are family farms no larger than 30 dunams (3 ha, 7.4 ac).[7]
Some 47,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank in about twenty permanent communities, most of them reside in the city of Jericho. Thousands of Bedouins also live in temporary communities.[8]
About 11,000 Israelis live in 17 kibbutzim that form part of the Emek HaYarden Regional Council in Israel,[9] while an additional 7,500 live in twenty-six Israeli settlements and five Nahal encampments that have been established in the part of the Jordan Valley that lies in the West Bank.[8][10]
Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, the valley's Jordanian side was home to about 60,000 people largely engaged in agriculture and pastoralism.[6] By 1971, the population had declined to 5,000 as a result of the war and the 1970-71 conflict between the Palestinian guerrillas and the Jordanian armed forces.[6] Investments by the Jordanian government in the region allowed the population to rebound to over 85,000 by 1979.[6]
Since the end of the 1967 war, every Israeli government has considered the western Jordan Valley to be the eastern border of Israel with Jordan.[8] The 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan defines the international border between the countries on the Jordan river in the center of the Jordan valley.
Agriculture
The Jordan River rises from several sources, mainly the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria. It flows down into the Sea of Galilee, 212 meters below sea level, and then drains into the Dead Sea.[11] South of the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley turns into the hot, dry Arabah valley.[11]
The Jordan Valley is several degrees warmer than adjacent areas, and its year-round agricultural climate, fertile soils and water supply made it a site for agriculture dating to about 10,000 years ago. By about 3000 BCE, produce from the valley was being exported to neighboring regions.[11] The area's fertile lands were chronicled in the Hebrew Bible, where it was the site of several miracles for the people of Israel, such as the Jordan River stopping its flow to allow the Jewish people, led by the Ark of the Covenant, to pass over. The Jordan River is revered by Christians as the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ.[11]
In the last few decades, modern methods of farming have vastly expanded the agricultural output of the area.[11] The construction of the East Ghor Canal by Jordan in 1950s (now known as the King Abdullah Canal), which runs down the east bank of the Jordan Valley for 69 kilometers, has brought new areas under irrigation.[11] The introduction of portable greenhouses has brought about a sevenfold increase in productivity, allowing Jordan to export large amounts of fruit and vegetables year-round.
“Left Hander!!!”
I heard my classmate yell as I approached the batting spot, rounders bat in hand feeling all dangerous and loose cannon-esque. I watched the least sporting of the kids who were always plonked out as fielders hurriedly lollop round to the left in their plimsolls and grey socks. I felt a wonderful feeling of power; the way I imagine a great white shark must feel when someone yells ‘shark!’ before watching the water empty and tasting the distinct increase of urea in the ocean.
It mattered not whether you actually did a good hit or not. The preamble was all you needed to feel special, important, so important that the team’s best thrower would be sent from their very important position at fourth base all the way round to cover the un-protected left side of the playground. The rest of the team on bases would shuffle diligently as if preparing their bodies for a back-to-front situation when really they were daydreaming about the latest Velcro shoes at Clarks.
Sport is a left handers most powerful time, we wield this mystery and unpredictability by using our strange little wizened left paw, or ‘south paw’.
Upon arrival back in the classroom after games, triumphant chest beating and dead leg giving began to seem a little misjudged when we had to sit down and write. There the ‘cack-handedness’ became more prevalent and the dead legs were returned.
I remember having to sit a certain way round when sharing desks with right handers or we would bash elbows. Writing a letter on un-lined paper was our Kryptonite – Left handers write uphill. Whatever way you turn the paper to counteract it, like a compass your left hand will adjust and ensure that the letter has a pleasant 1:3 incline.
And as for the smudging….I would go home every day with a permanent shadow on the underside of my arm and hand and a book full of bleeding writing. Had I spent an afternoon in art using charcoal then I would go home looking like a little chimney sweep.
I was informed rather too late this year that the 13th August was Left Handers day.
I didn’t even know we had a day. The word must be spread using some kind of flyer at the till in those left handed shops on Carnaby Street that sell scissors and knives and guitars. I would therefore not know about it as I have never bought anything ‘left handed’. When proffered left handed scissors in school I would end up ripping the paper in a furious crocodile technique after the scissors had simply curled the paper ever so gently for the umpteenth time.
When I went to people’s houses for tea they always tried to lay the table back to front for me. I explained that it didn’t matter and that I was still spoon fed at home and who was to do the honours this evening?
When I meet another left hander I find myself drawn towards them. Not because I feel we are some kind of comrades who have endured terrible hardship and prejudice but it’s just quite a good way to start chatting someone up. . . .
“So can you use normal scissors? I can.” flutter eyelashes, gaze at his left hand seductively.
“Yes I’m licensed to use scissors and rulers and bread knives and scalpels and hacksaws and most cutting implements.” He replies proudly with puffed out chest like a child who has used the toilet for the first time.
“Which side do you dress to? I hear that Kevin Costner always goes left.”
“Oh yes I have my trousers made especially with the left leg three times wider to accommodate me.”
I gasp, left hand grasps my throat as I let out a left-orientated filthy laugh and steal a quick glance at his crotch
“So do you also make love left handed?” I ask as I trace a line with my left hand down along my left buttock.
“Oh I don’t use my hands; I use my left handed ‘making love’ tools which I bought online from Ulefthandesucker.com. I have the portable set in the boot of my car, and some left handed condoms.”
“Which hand do you wipe your bum with?” I ask picking up a right handed ruler and using it to draw a perfect line, no smudges.
“Neither”
“Well nice to meet you, urm goodbye”
Hot weather is driving the local birds into cooler retreats during the bright daylight hours. Even those repugnant goblin birds are keeping a low profile despite their penetrating contact calls and replies as they conduct their equivalent of social media subculture dialogue.
As the evening rolls in the birds come in for a feed, and to refresh in the water scattered about for them. The new baby magpie is bold enough now to come to the door and call out for a handout. Her father has no qualms about going on the bludge, and rarely either Mistress Quickly or her mother Gośka will make an appearance. I keep an eye out for the moulting crimson rosellas; not so much red and blue as a mottled mess now. Extra nutrition is probably a blessing for them. There's a couple of cats about, one a big sleek male always on the prowl and up to no good, so I manage feeding out to limit the intrusion of vermin, cockatoos and the likelihood that a cat will take advantage of distracted feeding birds. I'll offer food up high now and only when I'm present as a cat deterrent.
Remarkably, last evening I spotted a male king parrot swooping into the big old loquat tree. It never yields fruit these days because when it flowers in early winter, the king parrots and crimson rosellas are searching for food and eat the flowers. I'd been critical of the king parrots — Charles and Camilla. She's particularly pushy and domineering. When they disappeared I was quick to suggest that after all I've done for her she'd better come back with babies.
Well, here's the proof. This is the company which came in with Chuck and Millie last evening. The light in here where the cover helps to keep the birds safe was so poor that my camera was firing it's IR focus assist beam. That's the same old COVID creativity bird feeder they're sitting on; the same one used by their parents years ago. What's intriguing is that the bird on the left trying to figure out how to eat their almond is clearly right-handed; most unusual for a parrot. Sulphur-crested cockatoos are said to be universally left-handed, king parrots have a recorded preference for being right-handed, and ground feeders like galahs which don't manipulate their food are ambidextrous!
There you have it — Millie was bulking up for the trials of brooding; not being greedy. She is forgiven.
Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands. Traditionally forming part of the boundary between the counties of Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire, Loch Lomond is split between the council areas of Stirling, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire. Its southern shores are about 23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of the centre of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The Loch forms part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002.
Loch Lomond is 36.4 kilometres (22.6 mi) long and between 1 and 8 kilometres (0.62–4.97 mi) wide, with a surface area of 71 km2 (27.5 sq mi). It is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area; in the United Kingdom, it is surpassed only by Lough Neagh and Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. In the British Isles as a whole there are several larger loughs in the Republic of Ireland. The loch has a maximum depth of about 190 metres (620 ft) in the deeper northern portion, although the southern part of the loch rarely exceeds 30 metres (98 ft) in depth. The total volume of Loch Lomond is 2.6 km3 (0.62 cu mi), making it the second largest lake in Great Britain, after Loch Ness, by water volume.
The loch contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles. Loch Lomond is a popular leisure destination and is featured in the song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The loch is surrounded by hills, including Ben Lomond on the eastern shore, which is 974 metres (3,196 ft) in height and the most southerly of the Scottish Munro peaks. A 2005 poll of Radio Times readers voted Loch Lomond as the sixth greatest natural wonder in Britain.
Formation
The depression in which Loch Lomond lies was carved out by glaciers during the final stages of the last ice age, during a return to glacial conditions known as the Loch Lomond Readvance between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. The loch lies on the Highland Boundary Fault, and the difference between the Highland and Lowland geology is reflected in the shape and character of the loch: in the north the glaciers dug a deep channel in the Highland schist, removing up to 600 m of bedrock to create a narrow, fjord-like finger lake. Further south the glaciers were able to spread across the softer Lowland sandstone, leading to a wider body of water that is rarely more than 30 m deep. In the period following the Loch Lomond Readvance the sea level rose, and for several periods Loch Lomond was connected to the sea, with shorelines identified at 13, 12 and 9 metres above sea level (the current loch lies at 8 m above sea level).
Islands
The loch contains thirty or more other islands, depending on the water level. Several of them are large by the standards of British bodies of freshwater. Inchmurrin, for example, is the largest island in a body of freshwater in the British Isles. Many of the islands are the remains of harder rocks that withstood the passing of the glaciers; however, as in Loch Tay, several of the islands appear to be crannogs, artificial islands built in prehistoric periods.
People first arrived in the Loch Lomond area around 5000 years ago, during the neolithic era. They left traces of their presence at places around the loch, including Balmaha, Luss, and Inchlonaig. Crannogs, artificial islands used as dwellings for over five millennia, were built at points in the loch. The Romans had a fort within sight of the loch at Drumquhassle. The crannog known as "The Kitchen", located off the island of Clairinsh, may have later been used as a place for important meetings by Clan Buchanan whose clan seat had been on Clairinsh since 1225: this usage would be in line with other crannogs such as that at Finlaggan on Islay, used by Clan Donald.
During the Early Medieval period viking raiders sailed up Loch Long, hauled their longboats over at the narrow neck of land at Tarbet, and sacked several islands in the loch.
The area surrounding the loch later become part of the province of Lennox, which covered much of the area of the later county of Dunbartonshire.
Loch Lomond became a popular destination for travellers, such that when James Boswell and Samuel Johnson visited the islands of Loch Lomond on the return from their tour of the Western Isles in 1773, the area was already firmly enough established as a destination for Boswell to note that it would be unnecessary to attempt any description.
The Highland Boundary Fault is a major fault zone that traverses Scotland from Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. It separates two different geological terranes which give rise to two distinct physiographic terrains: the Highlands and the Lowlands, and in most places it is recognisable as a change in topography. Where rivers cross the fault, they often pass through gorges, and the associated waterfalls can be a barrier to salmon migration.
The fault is believed to have formed in conjunction with the Strathmore syncline to the south-east during the Acadian orogeny in a transpressive regime that caused the uplift of the Grampian block and a small sinistral movement on the Highland Boundary Fault.
Discovery
One of the earliest and most prominent references to the Highland Boundary Fault was by George Barrow in 1912 ʻOn the Geology of Lower Dee-side and the Southern Highland Borderʼ, which highlights the nature of the rocks accompanying the Highland Border and describes the mineral zones associated with metamorphism. In the same publication, Barrow also outlines the ʻHighland Faultʼ and the areas where he believes there are planes of overthrust. Barrowʼs description of the structural nature of the rocks along the Highland Border suggests that rocks along both ends of the fault plane are indistinguishable from one another, with no brecciation.
Extent of fault
Aligned southwest to northeast from Lochranza on Arran, the Highland Boundary Fault bisects Bute and crosses the southeastern parts of the Cowal and Rosneath peninsulas, as it passes up the Firth of Clyde. It comes ashore near Helensburgh, then continues through Loch Lomond. The loch islands of Inchmurrin, Creinch, Torrinch, and Inchcailloch all lie on the Highland Boundary Fault. From Loch Lomond the Highland Boundary Fault continues to Aberfoyle, then Callander, Comrie and Crieff. It then forms the northern boundary of Strathmore and reaches the North Sea immediately north of Stonehaven near the ruined Chapel of St. Mary and St. Nathalan. Aeromagnetic maps of Great Britain and Northern Ireland show that the Highland Boundary Fault can be traced from Ireland to the region of Greenock. In these areas, the Highland Boundary Fault is seen to be dividing a northerly low area from a southerly high area.The fault is often considered a terrane boundary: the Midland Valley terrane lies to the south whilst the Southern Highlands or Grampian terrane lies to the north In 1970, Hall and Dagley identified the Highland Boundary Fault as coincident with a regional magnetic feature dividing a string of negative anomalies in the north from positive ones in the south. On discovering this, Hall and Dagley concluded that the observed trend, which followed the length of the Dalradian trough, transition from positive to negative anomalies. This linear feature of magnetic anomalies has since been referred to as the Fair Head–Clew Bay line.
Features
At present, it is believed that the Highland Boundary Fault was active during two main orogenic events associated with the Caledonian orogeny: the Grampian orogeny in the Early Ordovician and the Acadian orogeny in the Middle Devonian. The fault allowed the Midland Valley to descend as a major rift by up to 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and there was subsequent vertical movement. This earlier vertical movement was later replaced by a horizontal shear. A complementary fault, the Southern Uplands Fault, forms the southern boundary for the Central Lowlands. The age of the Highland Boundary Fault has been inferred to be between Ordovician to middle Devonian and through several generations it has been interpreted as a graben-bounding normal fault, a major sinistral strike-slip fault, a northwest-dipping reverse fault or terrane boundary. The reason the precise nature of the fault is still unknown is because there is little evidence of a continuous fault plane on the surface. More recently, seismic activities marking the fault line have been analysed to show that the 2003 Aberfoyle earthquake had a hypocentre at 4 km (2+1⁄2 mi) depth and was caused by an oblique sinistral strike-slip fault with normal movement. The fault plane was estimated to be dipping at 65° NW.
To the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault lie hard Precambrian and Cambrian metamorphic rocks: marine deposits metamorphosed to schists, phyllites and slates, namely the Dalradian Supergroup and the Highland Border Ophiolite suite. To the south and east are Old Red Sandstone conglomerates and sandstones: softer, sedimentary rocks of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. Between these areas lie the quite different rocks of the Highland Border Complex (at one time called the Highland Boundary Complex), a weakly metamorphosed sedimentary sequence of sandstones, lavas, limestones, mudstones and conglomerates. These make up a zone which is found discontinuously along the line of the fault and which is up to 1.2 kilometres (3⁄4 mi) in width.
The Dalradian Supergroup consists of metasedimentary rocks which underwent polyphase deformation and metamorphism during the Precambrian and early Paleozoic. The oldest Dalradian rocks (the Grampian Group) were deformed and metamorphosed around 750 Ma. The deposition of younger Dalradian sediments continued until 590 Ma, when the sediments underwent transformation to the greenschist facies during the Proterozoic and Ordovician.
Modeling of gravity and magnetic data along the fault has confirmed the presence of an extensive ophiolite suite. The Dalradian metasedimentary rocks are overlain by an obducted ophiolite that is continuous for at least several kilometres on either side of the Highland Boundary Fault. The models generated from magnetic data suggest that the ophiolite is only slightly displaced vertically by the fault.
The Old Red Sandstone is a magnafacies of red beds and lacustrine deposits from the Late Silurian to the Carboniferous. The NE segment of the Highland Boundary Fault is marked by an abrupt change in the dip of the Old Red Sandstone from around 20° to near-vertical and subsequently exposes the Old Red Sandstone basement.
It is currently believed that there were two main displacement events along the Highland Boundary Fault: the Acadian, and the post-Acadian.
Evidence for the Acadian displacement event is based on the geochemical study of detrital garnets in the Lower Old Red Sandstone on the Northern limb of the Strathmore Basin. These garnets were linked to those in isolated Dalradian sediments in the northwest, providing evidence for post-Early Devonian (Acadian) movement to be only few tens of kilometers.
In addition, the Lintrathen ignimbrite, which is present at the base of the Lower Devonian sequence was traced along the fault and it was found that the displacement was both short and lateral.
The post-Acadian movements are highlighted in the stratigraphy of the region. The Lower Old Red Sandstone is unconformably overlain by Upper Old Red Sandstone, where the Upper Old Red Sandstone is tilted close to the Highland Boundary Fault.
Red squirrels
The boundary is used as a natural barrier to prevent northwards movement of grey squirrels, thus protecting the only red squirrel population in the Highlands
The word sinistral means pertaining to the left side. It is the coiling, counter clockwise from the apex. This was a piece of fabric a friend brought back from South Africa. I knew when I saw it that I wanted to work with it. It is heavily beaded with seed beads and machine quilted. The letters are stamped with copper pearlescent dye.
I started with a piece of fabric from Africa, and embellished it with hundreds of seed beads, and filled in around the curve with thread play in a contrasting color. This measures 8.5" x 11" and is a page from my quilt journal.
Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands. Traditionally forming part of the boundary between the counties of Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire, Loch Lomond is split between the council areas of Stirling, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire. Its southern shores are about 23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of the centre of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The Loch forms part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002.
Loch Lomond is 36.4 kilometres (22.6 mi) long and between 1 and 8 kilometres (0.62–4.97 mi) wide, with a surface area of 71 km2 (27.5 sq mi). It is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area; in the United Kingdom, it is surpassed only by Lough Neagh and Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. In the British Isles as a whole there are several larger loughs in the Republic of Ireland. The loch has a maximum depth of about 190 metres (620 ft) in the deeper northern portion, although the southern part of the loch rarely exceeds 30 metres (98 ft) in depth. The total volume of Loch Lomond is 2.6 km3 (0.62 cu mi), making it the second largest lake in Great Britain, after Loch Ness, by water volume.
The loch contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles. Loch Lomond is a popular leisure destination and is featured in the song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The loch is surrounded by hills, including Ben Lomond on the eastern shore, which is 974 metres (3,196 ft) in height and the most southerly of the Scottish Munro peaks. A 2005 poll of Radio Times readers voted Loch Lomond as the sixth greatest natural wonder in Britain.
Formation
The depression in which Loch Lomond lies was carved out by glaciers during the final stages of the last ice age, during a return to glacial conditions known as the Loch Lomond Readvance between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. The loch lies on the Highland Boundary Fault, and the difference between the Highland and Lowland geology is reflected in the shape and character of the loch: in the north the glaciers dug a deep channel in the Highland schist, removing up to 600 m of bedrock to create a narrow, fjord-like finger lake. Further south the glaciers were able to spread across the softer Lowland sandstone, leading to a wider body of water that is rarely more than 30 m deep. In the period following the Loch Lomond Readvance the sea level rose, and for several periods Loch Lomond was connected to the sea, with shorelines identified at 13, 12 and 9 metres above sea level (the current loch lies at 8 m above sea level).
Islands
The loch contains thirty or more other islands, depending on the water level. Several of them are large by the standards of British bodies of freshwater. Inchmurrin, for example, is the largest island in a body of freshwater in the British Isles. Many of the islands are the remains of harder rocks that withstood the passing of the glaciers; however, as in Loch Tay, several of the islands appear to be crannogs, artificial islands built in prehistoric periods.
People first arrived in the Loch Lomond area around 5000 years ago, during the neolithic era. They left traces of their presence at places around the loch, including Balmaha, Luss, and Inchlonaig. Crannogs, artificial islands used as dwellings for over five millennia, were built at points in the loch. The Romans had a fort within sight of the loch at Drumquhassle. The crannog known as "The Kitchen", located off the island of Clairinsh, may have later been used as a place for important meetings by Clan Buchanan whose clan seat had been on Clairinsh since 1225: this usage would be in line with other crannogs such as that at Finlaggan on Islay, used by Clan Donald.
During the Early Medieval period viking raiders sailed up Loch Long, hauled their longboats over at the narrow neck of land at Tarbet, and sacked several islands in the loch.
The area surrounding the loch later become part of the province of Lennox, which covered much of the area of the later county of Dunbartonshire.
Loch Lomond became a popular destination for travellers, such that when James Boswell and Samuel Johnson visited the islands of Loch Lomond on the return from their tour of the Western Isles in 1773, the area was already firmly enough established as a destination for Boswell to note that it would be unnecessary to attempt any description.
The Highland Boundary Fault is a major fault zone that traverses Scotland from Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. It separates two different geological terranes which give rise to two distinct physiographic terrains: the Highlands and the Lowlands, and in most places it is recognisable as a change in topography. Where rivers cross the fault, they often pass through gorges, and the associated waterfalls can be a barrier to salmon migration.
The fault is believed to have formed in conjunction with the Strathmore syncline to the south-east during the Acadian orogeny in a transpressive regime that caused the uplift of the Grampian block and a small sinistral movement on the Highland Boundary Fault.
Discovery
One of the earliest and most prominent references to the Highland Boundary Fault was by George Barrow in 1912 ʻOn the Geology of Lower Dee-side and the Southern Highland Borderʼ, which highlights the nature of the rocks accompanying the Highland Border and describes the mineral zones associated with metamorphism. In the same publication, Barrow also outlines the ʻHighland Faultʼ and the areas where he believes there are planes of overthrust. Barrowʼs description of the structural nature of the rocks along the Highland Border suggests that rocks along both ends of the fault plane are indistinguishable from one another, with no brecciation.
Extent of fault
Aligned southwest to northeast from Lochranza on Arran, the Highland Boundary Fault bisects Bute and crosses the southeastern parts of the Cowal and Rosneath peninsulas, as it passes up the Firth of Clyde. It comes ashore near Helensburgh, then continues through Loch Lomond. The loch islands of Inchmurrin, Creinch, Torrinch, and Inchcailloch all lie on the Highland Boundary Fault. From Loch Lomond the Highland Boundary Fault continues to Aberfoyle, then Callander, Comrie and Crieff. It then forms the northern boundary of Strathmore and reaches the North Sea immediately north of Stonehaven near the ruined Chapel of St. Mary and St. Nathalan. Aeromagnetic maps of Great Britain and Northern Ireland show that the Highland Boundary Fault can be traced from Ireland to the region of Greenock. In these areas, the Highland Boundary Fault is seen to be dividing a northerly low area from a southerly high area.The fault is often considered a terrane boundary: the Midland Valley terrane lies to the south whilst the Southern Highlands or Grampian terrane lies to the north In 1970, Hall and Dagley identified the Highland Boundary Fault as coincident with a regional magnetic feature dividing a string of negative anomalies in the north from positive ones in the south. On discovering this, Hall and Dagley concluded that the observed trend, which followed the length of the Dalradian trough, transition from positive to negative anomalies. This linear feature of magnetic anomalies has since been referred to as the Fair Head–Clew Bay line.
Features
At present, it is believed that the Highland Boundary Fault was active during two main orogenic events associated with the Caledonian orogeny: the Grampian orogeny in the Early Ordovician and the Acadian orogeny in the Middle Devonian. The fault allowed the Midland Valley to descend as a major rift by up to 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and there was subsequent vertical movement. This earlier vertical movement was later replaced by a horizontal shear. A complementary fault, the Southern Uplands Fault, forms the southern boundary for the Central Lowlands. The age of the Highland Boundary Fault has been inferred to be between Ordovician to middle Devonian and through several generations it has been interpreted as a graben-bounding normal fault, a major sinistral strike-slip fault, a northwest-dipping reverse fault or terrane boundary. The reason the precise nature of the fault is still unknown is because there is little evidence of a continuous fault plane on the surface. More recently, seismic activities marking the fault line have been analysed to show that the 2003 Aberfoyle earthquake had a hypocentre at 4 km (2+1⁄2 mi) depth and was caused by an oblique sinistral strike-slip fault with normal movement. The fault plane was estimated to be dipping at 65° NW.
To the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault lie hard Precambrian and Cambrian metamorphic rocks: marine deposits metamorphosed to schists, phyllites and slates, namely the Dalradian Supergroup and the Highland Border Ophiolite suite. To the south and east are Old Red Sandstone conglomerates and sandstones: softer, sedimentary rocks of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. Between these areas lie the quite different rocks of the Highland Border Complex (at one time called the Highland Boundary Complex), a weakly metamorphosed sedimentary sequence of sandstones, lavas, limestones, mudstones and conglomerates. These make up a zone which is found discontinuously along the line of the fault and which is up to 1.2 kilometres (3⁄4 mi) in width.
The Dalradian Supergroup consists of metasedimentary rocks which underwent polyphase deformation and metamorphism during the Precambrian and early Paleozoic. The oldest Dalradian rocks (the Grampian Group) were deformed and metamorphosed around 750 Ma. The deposition of younger Dalradian sediments continued until 590 Ma, when the sediments underwent transformation to the greenschist facies during the Proterozoic and Ordovician.
Modeling of gravity and magnetic data along the fault has confirmed the presence of an extensive ophiolite suite. The Dalradian metasedimentary rocks are overlain by an obducted ophiolite that is continuous for at least several kilometres on either side of the Highland Boundary Fault. The models generated from magnetic data suggest that the ophiolite is only slightly displaced vertically by the fault.
The Old Red Sandstone is a magnafacies of red beds and lacustrine deposits from the Late Silurian to the Carboniferous. The NE segment of the Highland Boundary Fault is marked by an abrupt change in the dip of the Old Red Sandstone from around 20° to near-vertical and subsequently exposes the Old Red Sandstone basement.
It is currently believed that there were two main displacement events along the Highland Boundary Fault: the Acadian, and the post-Acadian.
Evidence for the Acadian displacement event is based on the geochemical study of detrital garnets in the Lower Old Red Sandstone on the Northern limb of the Strathmore Basin. These garnets were linked to those in isolated Dalradian sediments in the northwest, providing evidence for post-Early Devonian (Acadian) movement to be only few tens of kilometers.
In addition, the Lintrathen ignimbrite, which is present at the base of the Lower Devonian sequence was traced along the fault and it was found that the displacement was both short and lateral.
The post-Acadian movements are highlighted in the stratigraphy of the region. The Lower Old Red Sandstone is unconformably overlain by Upper Old Red Sandstone, where the Upper Old Red Sandstone is tilted close to the Highland Boundary Fault.
Red squirrels
The boundary is used as a natural barrier to prevent northwards movement of grey squirrels, thus protecting the only red squirrel population in the Highlands
phillyist.com/2008/09/10/yo_philly_in_the_news_63.php
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Former President Bill Clinton
www.nowpublic.com/election_day_could_boost_n_y
Former President Bill Clinton walking along the National Mall on his way to the dedication ceremonies for the National World War 2 Memorial, May 2004
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William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. Prior to his election as President, Clinton served a total of nearly 12 years as the 50th and 52nd Governor of Arkansas. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the junior U.S. Senator from New York. Clinton founded and currently heads the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote "the values of fairness and opportunity for all."
Presenting himself as a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991. He was a darkhorse candidate but won the nomination and was elected President in 1992 with Al Gore as his running mate. Clinton was handily re-elected in 1996 making him the first Democrat to serve two full terms as President since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
His domestic priorities as President included efforts to create a universal health care system, improve education, increase local police forces, restrict handgun sales, balance the federal budget, strengthen environmental regulations, improve race relations, promote equal rights, and protect the jobs of workers during pregnancy or medical emergency. With approval from Congress, he raised income taxes on the wealthiest taxpayers in 1993. His most dramatic domestic move was the radical reform of the welfare system in 1996 in cooperation with Republicans who had taken control of Congress.
Internationally, his priorities included reducing trade barriers, supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement, preventing nuclear proliferation, mediating the Northern Ireland peace process and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, and commanding military intervention to end the wars in Bosnia and the Kosovo. He engaged in air attacks on Iraq, most notably in Operation Desert Fox, and funded efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Clinton was the first baby boomer President and the first Democratic President to be re-elected since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Clinton was the third youngest President in history at 46, while Vice President Al Gore was 44. Clinton was one of only two Presidents in American history to be impeached. The vote to impeach was along party lines in the Republican-dominated congress. He was acquitted by a vote of the United States Senate on February 12, 1999. Clinton remained popular with the public throughout his two terms as President, ending his presidential career with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-term approval rating of any President in the post-Eisenhower era.
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Trivia about Bill Clinton:
Clinton is 6' 1½" (1.87m) tall.
Clinton is left-handed (other sinistral Presidents include James A. Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush).
Following the death of Pope John Paul II on 2005-04-02 Clinton stirred up a mini-controversy saying the late pontiff, "may have had a mixed legacy…there will be debates about him. But on balance, he was a man of God, he was a consistent person, he did what he thought was right." Clinton sat with both President George W. Bush and former President George H.W. Bush as the first current or former American heads of state to attend a papal funeral.
On 2006-05-13, Clinton was the commencement speaker along with George H. W. Bush at Tulane University in New Orleans. They both received honorary Doctorates of Laws from Tulane University. Clinton spoke to the students, faculty and alumni of Tulane and of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina that Tulane students know firsthand.
Clinton is an amateur saxophonist (other recent musical presidents include pianists Harry Truman and Richard Nixon).
Clinton is allergic to dust, mold, pollen, and cat dander, mildly allergic to beef and dairy products.
Clinton was a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity and Kappa Kappa Psi, a band service fraternity.
Clinton was the only President to be married to a member of Congress: Hillary Rodham
Clinton's service as a Senator officially began 18 days before his second term ended.
Clinton has basic knowledge of German; he studied German in college as his language-of-choice.
Clinton owned two pets during his presidency: a male chocolate-colored Labrador Retriever named "Buddy" and a cat named "Socks". Socks arrived in 1993 and was the first cat to live in the White House since President Carter's daughter's cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang. Clinton acquired Buddy as a puppy in 1997 and named him after his late uncle. Buddy and Socks fought frequently at the White House and were kept in separate quarters. Since this would be no longer possible in the Clintons' smaller home in Chappaqua, New York, Socks was given away to Clinton's secretary when he left office. Buddy died after being run over by a car near the Clintons' Chappaqua house in 2002.
Centraal Beheer, a Dutch insurance company famous for its humorous commercials, once had a TV commercial involving Clinton and a voodoo doll. This commercial was taken down after a few weeks at the request of the White House.
Clinton reportedly owned a 1970 El Camino at one time. Speaking to a group of GM employees, Clinton joked, "It had astro-turf in the back. You don't want to know why."
In November of 1997 President Clinton made history by being the first sitting President to speak to a gay rights organization. He gave a speech at a formal dinner hosted by the Human Rights Campaign .
The Clinton thumb gesture was popularized by Clinton.
Clinton's campaign song during his first Presidential campaign was "Don't Stop" [Thinking About Tomorrow] by Fleetwood Mac. He even managed to persuade the then-defunct group to perform for his inaugural ball in 1993.
Clinton is, to date, the only sitting U.S. President to have shaken hands with Cuban President Fidel Castro. The two leaders found themselves standing next to each other at a U.N. photo op in September 2000. As the 150 leaders in attendance were exiting for lunch, a chance bottle neck at the door put the two leaders side by side and the handshake took place. They shook hands and exchanged what was described as small talk for a couple of minutes. Richard Nixon shook Castro's hand when he was Vice-President, and Jimmy Carter has done so during his post-presidential years.
The first presidential Webcast, held by President Bill Clinton on 1999-11-08 live from Georgetown University, is currently the only bona fide Internet-age broadcast in a Presidential library. The two hour internet broadcast entitled Townhall with President Clinton, hosted by Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council and directed by Marc Scarpa, was billed as an "Online Town Hall Meeting" ushering in 'The New Politics of the Information Age'".
Appeared in a commercial with preceding president George Herbert Walker Bush encouraging donations to the Red Cross and other charities after the 2004 Tsunami.
Appeared in a commercial for Nickelodeon's Let's Just Play Get Healthy Challenge.
During the 1998 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Clinton made a bet with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on the playoff series between the Washington Capitals and the Ottawa Senators where the loser of the series had to wear the opposing team's jersey, The Capitals won the series four games to one and Chretien had to wear a Capitals jersey.
In 2003, he became the only politican to be the highlight of an E! True Hollywood Story.
Pareas chinensis
CHINESE SLUG SNAKE
INTERESTING FACT:
Since most snails are dextral (their shells spiral to the right),
snakes of the Pareidae family, i.e. oriental slug snakes, attack from the left. In order to facilitate such a hunting strategy, almost all of them have much more teeth on the right mandible (lower jaw) than on the left.
"Snail shells can spiral to the left (sinistral) or to the right (dextral), as determined by a single gene, and a new study* has found the advantage of being in the minority sinistral group: they survive predation by snakes much better than dextral snails. The effect of this advantage is so great they could separate into a distinct species.
(...)
Southeast Asian snakes of the pareatidae family — the oriental slug-eating snakes — specialize in eating slugs and snails, and because the majority of snails are dextral with the shells on the right side, the snakes attack from the left, grabbing the shell with its upper jaw and sticking its lower jaw into the gap. The snakes have also evolved asymmetrical mouth parts with more fangs on one side than the other to help them eat the dextral snails. These changes, however, make it difficult for them to eat sinistral snails, especially as the snakes continue to attack from the left.”
A sinistral digital appendage of an older Homo sapiens specimen is here provided for scale. It measures a little more than 9 in (23 cm) from wrist to middle fingertip, and gives some indication of the size of the beastly feldspars in this rock-faced block of Waupaca Granite. These took a very long time to crystallize out of their source magma.
And so we have our first up-close look at this remarkable if regrettably rare igneous-intrusive stone selection. The big brick-red chunks are alkali feldspars—primarily microcline and orthoclase. They're set in a matrix of hornblende and biotite mica, both blackish, and glassy gray quartz. What's not apparent, though, is the Waupaca's rapakivi texture that features white plagioclase haloes around the ruddy phenocrysts. To see that, we really need a nice polished section. And that will be provided later.
The Waupaca Granite formed from partly melted lower continetal crust in the Mesoproterozoic era, and has been radiometrically dated in the range of 1.484±2 to 1.468±4 Ga. It's one part of a major magmatic feature in central Wisconsin geologists call the Wolf River Batholith (WRB).
The origin of the WRB remains a matter of debate because it apparently did not occur in association with a subducting plate, but rather in what even then was continental interior. Suffice it to say that something rather weird may have been happening down in the Earth's mantle that had an effect on the crust above it.
To learn much more about this site and 200 others in the Windy City, make it your top personal priority to get a copy of my book Chicago in Stone and Clay, described at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765063/chicago-i...
And to peruse the other photos and descriptions in this series, pay a visit to my Graveyard Geology of Chicago album.
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
Un modillon est un élément d'architecture qui sert à soutenir une corniche. Il se différencie du corbeau par le fait qu'il est sculpté. Il y en a de très nombreux exemples, en particulier sur les églises romanes.
Petit bloc de pierre, sculpté de façon fine ou grossière, il diffère selon la nature des matériaux à la disposition du sculpteur. Les différences dans la nature du sol ont influencé, tout à la fois, les paysages et l'art de bâtir. Le matériau a joué sur la forme et la structure des églises romanes. Les roches dures (granitiques ou volcaniques) engendrent une architecture sévère de formes et de couleur. Ces matériaux résistants se prêtent beaucoup moins que le calcaire aux riches ornementations finement ciselées.
Ce qui frappe dans les modillons romans c'est la créativité des imagiers et la richesse des thèmes qu'ils abordent. La naïveté et la gaucherie du style des uns frappe tout autant que l'habileté soignée des autres. La verve du tailleur s'est souvent donnée libre cours. La liberté d'inspiration est élevée puisque des scènes érotiques ou obscènes jouxtent des ornementations florales ou géométriques, des représentations animalières ou monstrueuses aussi bien que des évocations de thèmes religieux, éducatifs, moraux. L'homme moderne est conduit à s'interroger sur la dimension purement ornementale des modillons ou sur leur éventuelle portée symbolique. En l'absence de sources l'interprétation restera délicate.
A modillon is an element of architecture which is used to support a cornice. It is different from the corbel by the fact that it is carved. There are very many examples of them, in particular on the Romance churches.
Small block of stone, carved in a fine or coarse way, it differs according to nature from materials at the disposal of the sculptor. The differences in nature of the ground influenced, all at the same time, the landscapes and art to build. The material exploited the form and the structure of the Romance churches. The hard stones (granitic or volcanic) generate a severe architecture of forms and color. These resistant materials lend themselves much less than limestone to the rich person finely engraved ornamentations.
What strikes in let us modillons Romance it is the creativity of the imagiers and the richness of the topics which they approach. The naivety and the sinistrality of the style of the ones strike very as much as the neat skill of the others. The liveliness of the tailor often gave itself free course. The freedom of inspiration is high since erotic scenes or obscenes are next to floral or geometrical ornamentations, animalist or monstrous representations as well as of the evocations of religious, educational, moral topics. The modern man is led to wonder on the purely decorative dimension of modillons or about their possible symbolic range. In the absence of sources interpretation will remain delicate.
While everyone elses' turns clockwise, mine is bent on following the chiral opposite.
Oh well, in due time dahling, in due time.
Taken in Kamalapur Railway Station, Dhaka
Looks better on black.
When in water, the body is more swollen, and both shell and body are more translucent, lighter and brighter in colour, and less reflective, than when in air.
Full SPECIES DESCRIPTION BELOW
Sets of OTHER SPECIES: www.flickr.com/photos/56388191@N08/collections/
GLOSSARY BELOW
Preface
[EDIT July 2021: specimens illustrated in this account which were supplied to Amgueddfa Cymru (the Natural History Museum, Wales) were sequenced by Ben Rowson who found no difference in the DNA of M. myosotis and M. denticulata and concluded that they were a single species; Myosotella myosotis. This has now been accepted by WoRMS; see www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=139672 ]
The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) accepts Myosotella myosotis and M. denticulata as valid species, but those identified as such in Britain may be distinct ecotypes of a single species. A possibility, raised by Martins (2013), is that the true M. myosotis (Draparnaud, 1801) occurs in the Mediterranean and that both British shell forms are ecotypes of M. denticulata (Montagu, 1803). This account treats them separately as, whichever status is determined by planned DNA sequencing, they have distinct apertural sculptures associated with different habitats.
Because of its special habitat intermediate between terrestrial and marine, this species, and its Myosotella and Leucophytia relatives in the family Ellobiidae, are omitted from some identification guides, while variously appearing in others devoted solely to either terrestrial, marine or even freshwater mollusca.
Myosotella myosotis (Draparnaud, 1801)
Synonyms: Auricula myosotis Draparnoud, 1801; Ovatella myosotis (Draparnaud, 1801); Alexia myosotis (Draparnaud, 1801); Phytia myosotis (Draparnaud, 1801); Conovulus denticulatus var. myosotis in Forbes & Hanley (1853); Melampus myosotis in Jeffreys (1869);
Vernacular Probably also applied to M. denticulata: Mouse-eared Alexia, Mouse ear(ed) snail (English); Clust llygoden (Welsh); Evesnegl (Danish); Muizenoortje (Dutch); Ovatelle naine des vases (French); Stranddvärgsnäcka (Swedish); Mäuseöhrchen (German);
Applied to just this species/ecotype: Estuarine mouse-ear (English); Gewoon muizenoortje (Dutch);
Description
When in water, the body is more swollen, and both shell and body are more translucent, lighter and brighter in colour, and less reflective, than when in air 1Mm flic.kr/p/2drL1Pw . The following shell description is of specimens in air.
Shell
Juvenile shell usually less than 6.5mm high. Adult shell usually up to 8mm high and 3.5mm broad, exceptionally 10mm high and 5mm broad; ridge often within palatal (outer) lip 2Mm flic.kr/p/2exLLRc . Fusiform shell, width 45% to 50% of height 3Mm flic.kr/p/23Wmsve . Small spire with sharp apex; body whorl c. 73% of height of 7.5mm adult; 77% of 5.8mm juvenile; 80% of 4.4mm juvenile. Apex slightly twisted due to change from sinistral protoconch to dextral teleoconch. Shell-wall thin, opaque or slightly translucent, with a silky sheen when clean 2Mm flic.kr/p/2exLLRc . Up to 8 moderately convex whorls separated by distinct shallow sutures. On juveniles, the periostracum is drawn into a row of bristles below the sutures 4Mm flic.kr/p/23Wmsjc , but they are worn off over time; a few bristles may survive on adult shells. Earliest juveniles with three or fewer whorls lack periostracum and bristles; their shells are white-translucent with punctate spiral lines which may persist for a time as the shell grows 5Mm flic.kr/p/23Wms8v ; other later whorls may have them concealed under the periostracum. Very fine, closely spaced, costal lines sometimes visible on adults, especially on spire whorls 6Mm flic.kr/p/23Wms6g . Growth lines sometimes emphasised by change of shell colour 7Mm flic.kr/p/2drL14d . Usually no umbilicus except for an umbilicus-like slit in the apex caused by the change from the sinistral larval shell (protoconch) to a dextral shell 5Mm flic.kr/p/23Wms8v . Within the shell, when it reaches 2½ whorls, the columella and septa between the spire whorls are resorbed by the mantle, leaving an open space except for the columella and septum of the body whorl 8Mm flic.kr/p/23WmrU4 & 9Mm flic.kr/p/2drKZRQ . Aperture about 50% of adult shell height, 65% of 4.6mm juvenile; shaped like a narrow ear with a rounded base and a sharp adapical angle 3Mm flic.kr/p/23Wmsve & 10Mm flic.kr/p/QMuYsB . Palatal (outer) lip of juveniles (under c.6mm shell-height) is thin without protrusions (folds/teeth/denticles); lip sometimes weakly reflected 4Mm flic.kr/p/23Wmsjc on adults (over c.6mm high) often with a pale calcareous ridge within the aperture near the palatal rim. The ridge sometimes contains a single raised white denticle that is often only weakly developed. The columellar/parietal lip (inner lip of aperture) has two or three protrusions . The parietal lip consists of a wide glazed area on the body whorl. For a clear view of the features within the aperture, including, sometimes, a far-back palatal ridge formed at a previous pause in growth, the animal may need a prod with a small brush to make it withdraw, and the shell requires tilting at different angles 11Mm flic.kr/p/2drKZKC . There is no operculum 12Mm flic.kr/p/QMuYge . Exterior colour varies from pale yellowish brown to dark reddish brown or, sometimes, purplish brown 2Mm flic.kr/p/2exLLRc . Sometimes the shade of brown changes at growth lines 7Mm flic.kr/p/2drL14d , and, frequently, the spire is darker than the body whorl 3Mm flic.kr/p/23Wmsve . The protoconch and juvenile shell up to 1.4mm height are white 13Mm flic.kr/p/2drKZr1 , and are retained as a white apex on the adult 2Mm flic.kr/p/2exLLRc . On adults, the pale ridge within the aperture may show as a pale band on the exterior of the slightly translucent shell 11Mm flic.kr/p/2drKZKC . Shells on saltings are often coated with mud 14Mm flic.kr/p/QMuY3i . On dead stranded shells the periostracum often peels off and the colour bleaches to whitish 15Mm flic.kr/p/2drKZdL .
Body
Upper parts of head and body that are exposed by normal extension are various shades of grey including whitish-grey, steel-grey and brownish-grey to nearly black 6Mm flic.kr/p/23Wms6g & 16Mm flic.kr/p/QMuXMt , but rarely, if ever, pure white; colour on an individual varies with degree of extension and whether in air or water, and its intensity may increase with age. The colour is arranged in transverse bands across the dorsum 7Mm flic.kr/p/2drL14d , and as a mosaic of tessellating blotches on the sides of the head 16Mm flic.kr/p/QMuXMt . Sides of foot are greyish white or a paler grey than the dorsum 17Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYVb . Body parts normally concealed by the shell have less pigment and show the white of the internal oesophagus with flanking salivary glands, reproductive organs and retractor muscles when the body is extended to its maximum 7Mm flic.kr/p/2drL14d & 18Mm flic.kr/p/QMuXBi . When immersed, the body absorbs water and swells, the body colour becomes paler, and translucency of the shell and body increases 19Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYKG . The mantle sometimes projects a short way beyond the aperture rim of the palatal lip, but is not reflected onto it 20Mm flic.kr/p/2da1VEX . The parietal lip on the body whorl is a glaze formed by the mantle extending onto it. Within the shell, the mantle is very thin, semi-transparent and colourless apart from a faint, fine, pale-grey speckling. Where it roofs the mantle cavity 21Mm flic.kr/p/2da1VyK , it contains many haemolymph vessels which are occasionally visible through translucent juvenile shells 22Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYpG or on dissected mantle. The mantle cavity, which functions as a lung for respiration, is sealed off from the exterior by a thick, white or brownish-white, membranous mantle-collar which fits closely round the body as it extends or retracts 23Mm flic.kr/p/QMuSQV & 24Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYky . The collar has a pneumostome which, when in air, can be opened and closed 25Mm flic.kr/p/2exLJ2K for respiration and humidity control but, when immersed, does not effectively retain air or exclude water 26Mm flic.kr/p/2drKY7h . The rectum and part of the intestine, visible through translucent shells in water 22Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYpG , runs along the rear edge of the roof of the mantle cavity 21Mm flic.kr/p/2da1VyK to the anus which opens to the exterior in a folded part of the mantle-collar 27Mm flic.kr/p/2da1UTX in the adapical angle of the aperture close to the pneumostome. The head has two cephalic tentacles; nearly linear with a bluntly pointed tip (subulate) when dry, and conical and paler when swollen with water 16Mm flic.kr/p/QMuXMt . When not extended, they are contracted into crumpled stumps 28Mm flic.kr/p/2drKY1q , not retracted by inversion into the body. Both when extended or contracted, the tentacles widely diverge from their bases near the midline of the head 28Mm flic.kr/p/2drKY1q & 29Mm flic.kr/p/2da1UNr . The distal half of the tentacles, sometimes slightly bulbous, is brownish and contains sensory chemoreceptor cells (Wondrak, 1984) 29Mm flic.kr/p/2da1UNr . There is an internal black eye within the posteromesial base of each tentacle 29Mm flic.kr/p/2da1UNr & 30Mm flic.kr/p/2drKXUJ . Distinctness of eyes varies with intensity of body pigment and amount of flesh they are viewed through. The head in front of the tentacles forms a broad, slightly bilobed “muzzle” (Forbes & Hanley,1853) which can be variably configured, but not cylindrically to form a snout like that of many marine gastropods. When not feeding, it forms a shallow curve over the mouth in anterior view, and a steep anterior in profile view 28Mm flic.kr/p/2drKY1q . Near the anterior edge of the muzzle are two button-like, faintly-brownish grey pads (“fungiform bodies” of Wondrak, 1984) 28Mm flic.kr/p/2drKY1q which contain sensory cells. Ventrally, the mouth is protected by white outer-lip lobes. When feeding, the ventrally translucent-white muzzle is spread out flat on the substrate and the outer lips moved aside 31Mm flic.kr/p/SpE2GS to expose the mouth edged anteriorly by the rim of the red-brown jaw, and to allow the extension of the anterior of the radula covered in thousands of white teeth. When translucent, the muzzle may reveal dorsally the oral tube leading from the mouth to the buccal mass, and the oesophagus passing from it towards the stomach 18Mm flic.kr/p/QMuXBi . The stomach is a large sac, partly surrounded by digestive gland. On specimens removed from the shell, the transparent lateral surface showing the stomach contents is prominently visible on the left of the visceral mass 32Mm flic.kr/p/2exLHtF , and the gizzard-like girdle of strong, white, folded muscle fibre surrounding it may be seen if the visceral mass is opened 33Mm flic.kr/p/2da1Uvc & 34Mm flic.kr/p/2exLHiF . Unlike the spiral viscera of most gastropods, the viscera of M. myosotis forms a non-spiracular, approximate cone 35Mm flic.kr/p/2da1Uo8 to fill the spire after the columella and septa are resorbed 8Mm flic.kr/p/23WmrU4 & 9Mm flic.kr/p/2drKZRQ , with a small colourless tip formed in the shell's early pre-resorption stage. On weakly pigmented, translucent specimens (most often juveniles) the dumbbell-shaped, dorsal part of the nerve ring with two cerebral ganglia may be visible 24Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYky . The ring encircles the oesophagus. It and its ganglia that innervate organs on the head are the nearest approximation in gastropods to a centralised brain, but other ganglia distributed on nerve cords around the body innervate other organs 36Mm flic.kr/p/2exLH8v . The anterior edge of the translucent white sole is broad and almost straight, sometimes with a slightly indented middle, and tapers to a rounded posterior 25Mm flic.kr/p/2exLJ2K . M. myosotis is a protandrous hermaphrodite with a penis shaped as a stout cone with the vas deferens running up the centre. The penis is normally inverted within the body, and everted for mating by hydrostatic pressure of haemolymph from an opening on the right side of the head to the rear of the tentacle 37Mm flic.kr/p/2da1Uac .
Key identification features
Features 1 to 4, below, accord with Forbes & Hanley (1853) and Gittenberger (2004). The former aggregated M. myosotis sensu stricto with M. denticulata but “scrupulously kept apart their description.” Many currently used identification guides aggregate them and their features under M. myosotis sensu lato. Consequently, distribution maps on GBIF and NBN include many M. denticulata occurrences under “M. myosotis”, and the M. denticulata maps have under-representation of its occurrence. If making a differentiated record, 'sensu stricto' should be added to the record to enable it to be distinguished from lumped records.
To observe aperture sculpture the animal must be well withdrawn, and the shell tilted at different angles. Sometimes the outer (palatal) lip sculpture of an earlier growth stage is visible deep into the aperture and should be used if the sculpture on new growth has not yet developed. It is advisable to examine several specimens of different sizes from a site; sometimes both are present.
Myosotella myosotis
1. Live shell brown 2Mm flic.kr/p/2exLLRc (beachworn shells may be dull whitish 15Mm flic.kr/p/2drKZdL ). Usual adult height 6.5mm to 8mm, exceptionally 10mm .
2. Inner (columellar/parietal) lip has only 2 or 3 apertural protrusions 3Mm flic.kr/p/23Wmsve .
3. Outer (palatal) lip has a single apertural denticle or none 3Mm flic.kr/p/23Wmsve . Some have a pale apertural ridge running close to the lip.
4. Flesh colour of normally extended dorsal body is grey 1Mm flic.kr/p/2drL1Pw . Shade and intensity varies with age, extension and whether in air or water, but not pure white when adult.
5. Habitat: among vegetation, often under driftwood, on low salinity estuarine saltings 38Mm flic.kr/p/2exLH2t and Saltmarsh-grass sward by tidal rivers 39Mm flic.kr/p/2da1TMi a little above and below EHWS. Locally abundant. (May occur with M. denticulata under stones on/near saltings 40Mm flic.kr/p/2exLGc2 .)
Similar species/ecotype
Myosotella denticulata
(full account flic.kr/s/aHskQdY4cp)
1. Live shell brown (beachworn shells may be dull whitish). Usual adult height 3.5 mm to 7.5 mm, exceptionally 10 mm 45Mm flic.kr/p/QMuTi8 .
2. Inner (columellar/parietal) lip has 3 to 5 apertural protrusions 45Mm flic.kr/p/QMuTi8 .
3.Outer (palatal) lip has 2 to 7 (or more) apertural protrusions 45Mm flic.kr/p/QMuTi8 , sometimes set into a pale ridge which occasionally submerges them. [If no protrusions, check further back in aperture for protrusions on earlier lip position; may be visible from exterior through translucent shell , with or without connecting streaks.]
4. In its typical non-salting habitat, the flesh colour of normally extended dorsal body is white or very pale whitish grey, with darker grey tentacles 46Mm flic.kr/p/2da1NUc . But when it occurs in muddier conditions, it may be as dark as M. myosotis 47Mm flic.kr/p/QMuSYv .
5. Habitat: typically under slightly embedded stones at Extreme High Water Spring level and above (supralittoral) on sheltered coast without salting vegetation at fully marine salinity. Occasionally under stones on landward edge of Saltmarsh-grass sward by tidal rivers with low salinity 40Mm flic.kr/p/2exLGc2 .
Leucophytia bidentata (Montagu, 1808).
(Full account flic.kr/s/aHsmwhDvaL )
Features 1 to 4 conform with Montagu's original description and image.
1. Live shell slightly-translucent ivory-white; yellow viscera may show through spire 48Mm flic.kr/p/2da1NEe . Usual adult height to 5 mm, occasionally to 7 mm. Sutures shallower and whorls less rounded than on M. myosotis 49Mm flic.kr/p/2da21sH .
2. Inner (columellar/parietal) lip has 2 protrusions within the aperture; not more 49Mm flic.kr/p/2da21sH .
3. Outer (palatal) lip has no protrusions or rib (sometimes in a photo, a strong growth line might be mistaken for a rib 49Mm flic.kr/p/2da21sH ).
4. Flesh colour of normally extended dorsal body is amost pure white 48Mm flic.kr/p/2da1NEe , but when contracted into body-whorl colour saturation gives it a cream appearance.
5. Lives in deep, silty, rock crevices between High Water Neap level and Low Water Spring level. Also under stones embedded into soil-like substrate at Extreme High Water Spring level and a little above on sheltered coast where it is often with M. denticulata.
Habits and ecology
M. myosotis lives in the upper littoral fringe at, and a little below, the level of EHWS tides at the base of halophyte vascular plants on estuarine saltings 41Mm flic.kr/p/QMuUAP and in Saltmarsh-grass sward (Puccinellia maritima) along tidal rivers 39Mm flic.kr/p/2da1TMi & 42Mm flic.kr/p/2exLEJH . This zone can be extensive on large, flat, estuarine saltings 38Mm flic.kr/p/2exLH2t or as little as a metre wide on steep river banks 39Mm flic.kr/p/2da1TMi . At its upper limits, at or a little above EHWS, M. myosotis intermingles with some terrestrial invertebrates. It does not live in permanently submerged in pools, but can survive and be active for the short period of immersion (c. 1 hour) that occurs on 2 to 6 days per month. It lives semi-subterraneanly under driftwood 43Mm flic.kr/p/QMuTCB or large debris, or in the groundcover matt of vegetation and debris which, for moving through, its spindle shaped shell is well adapted. When moving, the foot is cushioned on a layer of watery mucus and the shell has a thicker layer between it and the substrate 17Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYVb . Under large pieces of wood or debris it favours the central darkest part while Assiminea grayana, if present, is found near the periphery. After immersion or during rain, it may be active in the open when its tentacles wave in the air to detect odours and, in the absence of anterior tentacles found on most pulmonates, its oral tube tests wet substances on the substrate (Wondrak, 1984). The two button-like, faintly-brownish grey pads (“fungiform bodies” of Wondrak, 1984) 28Mm flic.kr/p/2drKY1q near the anterior edge of the muzzle are also sensory.
It is a euryhaline species capable of surviving immersion in water from 0 p.p.t to full marine salinity or more, but individuals require time to adapt to changes in salinity and may become inactive/moribund when abruptly immersed in water they are unaccustomed to.
Respiration is of atmospheric air in the mantle cavity which is sealed by a white collar of thickened mantle 23Mm flic.kr/p/QMuSQV that firmly embraces the body but allows it to extend-from/retract-into the shell 24Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYky . A pneumostome (respiratory pore) in the collar 25Mm flic.kr/p/2exLJ2K can be opened for inhalation/exhalation of air or closed to seal the cavity against dehydration.The roof of the mantle cavity contains a network of haemolymph vessels 21Mm flic.kr/p/2da1VyK and is very thin, enabling oxygen from inhaled air to diffuse into the vessels and for carbon dioxide to leave with the exhaled air. When immersed, air escapes from the mantle cavity 26Mm flic.kr/p/2drKY7h and water enters 24Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYky . M. myosotis can survive immersion for at least three days with no access to atmospheric air. Long submersion with water in the mantle cavity is well tolerated if the water's oxygen content is high 22Mm flic.kr/p/2drKYpG (Seelmann, 1968, in Gittenberger, 2004).
When feeding, the muzzle is spread out on the substrate and the radula is extended 31Mm flic.kr/p/SpE2GS to gather, with the red jaw as a backstop, decaying vegetation, diatoms (Wiese & Richling, 2008) and sediment rich in organic material which are bound into food boli with mucus from the supra pedal gland brought to the mouth along a median groove. The boli travel along the oesophagus 36Mm flic.kr/p/2exLH8v to the stomach 32Mm flic.kr/p/2exLHtF & 34Mm flic.kr/p/2exLHiF where strong muscular contractions of the internally-folded gizzard triturate them and squeeze out semi-fluid nutrient which passes into the diverticula of the digestive gland for digestion. The residual mass is squeezed as faecal boli into the intestine by muscular contractions 34Mm flic.kr/p/2exLHiF and passes to and through the rectum 21Mm flic.kr/p/2da1VyK . Unlike marine prosobranch gastropods, which defecate into a mantle cavity that is cleared by water currents, M. myosotis has a rectum that opens to the exterior through an anus in the mantle collar, near to, but separate from, the pneumostome 27Mm flic.kr/p/2da1UTX so that faeces are expelled without fouling the respiratory mantle-cavity. The soft faeces, wet and loosely bound with mucus when fresh, dry to thin granular threads consisting mostly of fine mineral particles 44Mm flic.kr/p/2da1Pyi .
Reproduction: in NW Germany, copulation is in all months with peaks in April/May and August/September (Schultes,2014). Ova are laid when the temperature is above 15°C from late spring to late summer (Gittenberger, 2004). It is a protandrous hermaphrodite which changes its sexual function in the wild when 1½ to 2 years old, so younger, 1 to 1½ years, fully mature males mate with older, over 1½ years, females (Schultes, 2014) using the stout, conical penis everted from the side near the posterior of the right tentacle. Sometimes, a chain of three individuals mate, with the middle one acting as both male and female. Under optimal laboratory conditions, newly hatched animals can reach a shell length of 5 mm and start laying eggs in 8 weeks (Wiese & Richling, 2008). Each month of the breeding season, a female deposits 15 to 80 egg capsules (Schultes, 2014) in a small, yellow or white, frog-spawn-like mass (Morton, 1954 and Gittenberger, 2004). Each ovoid capsule contains a single ovum. The cases are attached to each other in a loosely convoluted chain by a filament (chalaziform process) at each end. The closely packed cases with intervening clear fluid are contained in a tough binding membrane which is attached to stones, plant stems, wood etc in moist situations (Morton, 1954) or in soil cavities in clusters from several females (Schultes, 2014).There is a larval veliger stage, with sinistral shell, which is passed entirely within the ovum (Morton, 1954). At 10 °C to 20 °C and 18 p.p.t. salinity, crawling juveniles emerge after about two and a half weeks. At less favourable salinities, less than 18 p.p.t or more than 54p.p.t., development takes several weeks longer (Gittenberger, 2004), though the eggs are moist but not immersed for most of the time. Juveniles in northern Germany hatch after 3-7 weeks, and 12-15 days in France (Schultes, 2014). Individuals can live to 3 or 4 years of age (Wiese & Richling, 2008).
Distribution and status
Europe from Orkney, Scotland and southern Denmark to Mediterranean and Azores; majority of records are from Britain and Ireland. Locally abundant in suitable habitat in Britain. Occurs in German Baltic saltmarshes, but habitat threatened in Germany (Wiese & Richling, 2008). Assumed to have been introduced to temperate coasts of Australia and North America (Atlantic and Pacific) GBIF map www.gbif.org/species/2297460 , but comparison of soft part morphology suggests that many different species have been aggregated because of similar shell morphology (Martins, 2013).
Widespread around Britain but non-estuarine records are likely to be the species/ecotype M. denticulata NBN map
species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0001702112#tab_mapView
Irish distribution, National biodiversity data centre, in Mollusc Ireland: www.habitas.org.uk/molluscireland/species.asp?ID=121
Acknowledgements
I gratefully thank Ben Rowson of the National Museum of Wales/ Amgueddfa Cymru for his help with the account, but any errors or omissions are mine.
Links and references
Anderson, R. MolluscIreland, accessed January 2019. www.habitas.org.uk/molluscireland/species.asp?ID=121
Forbes, E. & Hanley S. 1849-53. A history of the British mollusca and their shells. vol. 4 (1853), 190 – 197 & plate CXXV. London, van Voorst. (AsConovulus denticulatus var. myosotis.)
Free pdf at archive.org/details/historyofbritish04forbe/page/190
plate at archive.org/details/historyofbritish04forbe/page/n565
Fretter, V. & Peake, J. 1975. Pulmonates functional anatomy and physiology. Vol.1. London. Academic Press.
Gittenberger, E. et al. 2004. De Nederlandse zoetwatermollusken. Leiden, Netherlands, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis.
Heller J. 2015. Marine Ancestors of most Land Snails: Pulmonates. In: Sea Snails. Springer, Cham. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-15452-7_10
Jeffreys, J.G. 1862-69. British conchology. vol. 5 (1869). London, van Voorst. (As Melampus myosotis (including var. ringens = Myosotella denticulata); Free pdf at archive.org/stream/britishconcholog05jeffr#page/106/mode/2up . Use slide at base of page to select pp.106-109.)
Martins, A.M. de F. 1996. Anatomy and systematics of the western Atlantic Ellobidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Malacologia 37(2): 163 – 332.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13113594#page/179/mode/1up
Martins, A.M. de F. & Mendes, A.R.M. 2013. Do cosmopolitans speciate? Anatomical diversity of Myosotella in Azores. Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos. Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal. Poster for World Congress of Malacology 2013 in pdf: www.researchgate.net/publication/264339925_Do_cosmopolita... .
Montagu, G. 1808. Supplement to: 1803 Testacea Britannica, or, Natural history of British shells, marine, land, and fresh-water, including the most minute : systematically arranged and embellished with figures. London, J. White.
Description of Leucophtia bidentata as Voluta bidentata pp. 100-101.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24430722#page/806/mode/1up
Plate 30, fig.2:
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24430722#page/917/mode/1up
Morton, J. E. 1955. The functional morphology of the British Ellobiidae (Gastropoda Pulmonata) with special reference to the digestive and reproductive systems. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Ser. B .
239, No. 661: 89-160 www.jstor.org/stable/92507
Schultes, F.W. 2014. Species summary for Ovatella myosotis (Draparnoud, 1801). AnimalBase. SUB Göttingen. www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBas... Accessed January 2019.
Watson, H. I943. Notes on a list of the British non-marine Mollusca. J. Conch. 22: 13 - 22.
Wiese, V. & Richling, I. 2008. Das Mäuseöhrchen Myosotella myosotis (Draparnaud 1801). Arbeitskreis Mollusken NRW.
www.mollusken-nrw.de/weichtier_des_jahres/weichtier2008.htm
Wondrak, G. 1984. Ultrastructure of the sensory epithelia of oral tube, fungiform sensory bodies, and terminal knobs of tentacles of Ovatella
myosotis. Draparnaud (Archaeopulmonata, Gastropoda) J. Morphol. 181: 333-347 .
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jmor.1051810307
Current taxonomy:
www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=139673
Glossary
adapical angle = angle at which outer lip meets body-whorl.
boli = (sing. bolus) small rounded masses, especially of triturated food material.
cerebral = to do with integration of sensory and neural functions to initiate and coordinate body activity.
chalaziform = resembling the two spiral bands (chalazae) in a bird's egg that attach the yolk to opposite ends of the lining membrane.
columella = solid or hollow axial “little column” around which gastropod shell spirals; hidden inside shell, except on final whorl next to lower part of inner lip of aperture where hollow ones may end in an umbilicus or siphonal canal.
columellar = (adj.) of or near central axis of coiled gastropod.
columellar lip = lower (abapical) part of inner lip of aperture.
costa (pl. costae) = rib running across a whorl of a gastropod shell at approximately right-angles to direction of coiling and any spiral striae.
costal (adj.) = of, or arranged like, costae.
dextral = (of gastropod shell) in apertural view with spire uppermost, the aperture is on the right. Most gastropod species adults have dextral shells.
distal = away from centre of body or from point of attachment.
diverticula = (for digestion) blind ended tubules in the digestive gland that receive nutrients for digestion.
EHWS = extreme high water spring tide.
euryhaline = able to tolerate a wide variation in salinty.
fusiform = slender, spindle-shaped, tapering almost equally towards both ends.
ganglia = (sing. ganglion) knots on a nerve cord containing sensory cell bodies that conduct impulses to (innervate) organs of the body.
haemolymph = circulating fluid in molluscs that carries nutrients, waste and hormones. Analagous to vertebrate blood, but most molluscs have copper-based haemocyanin in it instead of red haemoglobin to carry oxygen. It may be tinged blue when oxygenated; colourless when depleted of oxygen.
halophyte = plant tolerant of saline soil and periodic tidal immersion, usually on saltmarshes, estuarine shores and sides of tidal rivers.
mantle = sheet of tissue that secretes the shell, covers the viscera and forms a cavity in gastropods. In terrestrial gastropods ('pulmonates') the cavity roof contains a network of haemolymph ('blood') vessels enabling the cavity to act like a lung.
mesial = on or facing towards the midline of the body.
operculum = plate of horny conchiolin, rarely calcareous, used to close shell aperture of prosobranch gastropods.
palatal lip = outer lip of gastropod aperture.
parietal lip ( or parietal wall) = upper part of inner side of gastropod aperture, often lacking clear lip structure with just a glaze on side of whorl adapically of columellar lip.
periostracum = thin horny layer of proteinaceous material often coating shells.
posteromesial = at the rear facing towards the midline of the body.
prosobranch = member of Prosobranchia, one of three subclasses into which the class Gastropoda (slugs and snails) was divided during the 20th Century (other two were Pulmonata and Opisthobranchia). This classification is no longer used by scientists, but prosobranch is a useful informal term to signify (mainly marine) snails breathing with a ctenidium (comblike gill inside mantle cavity), an operculum, and a shell which can accommodate the whole body.
protandrous hermaphrodite = each individual starts mature life as a functioning male, later changing to female function.
protoconch = apical whorls produced during embryonic and larval stages of gastropod; often different in form from other whorls (teleoconch).
protrusions = teeth, denticles, folds, lamellae or cogs (terms used by various authors).
punctate = with pinprick-like depressions.
resorb = absorb what was previously secreted; break it down into component materials and disperse into the circulation.
resorption = the process of absorbing what was previously secreted by breaking it down into component materials and dispersal into the circulation.
salting = area of salt tolerant vascular plants rooted in sediment between mean high water mark (MHW) and extreme high water of spring tides (EHWS). [Preferred synonym for “saltmarsh” as much of salting not marshy.]
septa = plural of septum; internal partition separating two chambers/ shell-whorls of a gastropod.
septum = internal partition separating two chambers/ shell-whorls of a gastropod.
sinistral = (of gastropod shell) in apertural view with spire uppermost, the aperture is on the left. Most gastropod species adults have dextral shells.
subsutural = close below the suture when shell positioned with apex uppermost.
subulate = slender and tapering to a point like onion leaf or awl.
suture = groove or line where whorls of gastropod shell adjoin.
teleoconch = entire gastropod shell other than the apical, embryonic & larval stage protoconch.
triturate = reduce to small particles.
vascular plants = plants that have vascular tissues to transport water and nutrients through the plant. Include all seed-bearing plants, ferns and horsetails. Usually terrestrial or in freshwater or brackish water; a few, such as Zostera, live in fully marine salinity water.
Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands. Traditionally forming part of the boundary between the counties of Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire, Loch Lomond is split between the council areas of Stirling, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire. Its southern shores are about 23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of the centre of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The Loch forms part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002.
Loch Lomond is 36.4 kilometres (22.6 mi) long and between 1 and 8 kilometres (0.62–4.97 mi) wide, with a surface area of 71 km2 (27.5 sq mi). It is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area; in the United Kingdom, it is surpassed only by Lough Neagh and Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. In the British Isles as a whole there are several larger loughs in the Republic of Ireland. The loch has a maximum depth of about 190 metres (620 ft) in the deeper northern portion, although the southern part of the loch rarely exceeds 30 metres (98 ft) in depth. The total volume of Loch Lomond is 2.6 km3 (0.62 cu mi), making it the second largest lake in Great Britain, after Loch Ness, by water volume.
The loch contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles. Loch Lomond is a popular leisure destination and is featured in the song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The loch is surrounded by hills, including Ben Lomond on the eastern shore, which is 974 metres (3,196 ft) in height and the most southerly of the Scottish Munro peaks. A 2005 poll of Radio Times readers voted Loch Lomond as the sixth greatest natural wonder in Britain.
Formation
The depression in which Loch Lomond lies was carved out by glaciers during the final stages of the last ice age, during a return to glacial conditions known as the Loch Lomond Readvance between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. The loch lies on the Highland Boundary Fault, and the difference between the Highland and Lowland geology is reflected in the shape and character of the loch: in the north the glaciers dug a deep channel in the Highland schist, removing up to 600 m of bedrock to create a narrow, fjord-like finger lake. Further south the glaciers were able to spread across the softer Lowland sandstone, leading to a wider body of water that is rarely more than 30 m deep. In the period following the Loch Lomond Readvance the sea level rose, and for several periods Loch Lomond was connected to the sea, with shorelines identified at 13, 12 and 9 metres above sea level (the current loch lies at 8 m above sea level).
Islands
The loch contains thirty or more other islands, depending on the water level. Several of them are large by the standards of British bodies of freshwater. Inchmurrin, for example, is the largest island in a body of freshwater in the British Isles. Many of the islands are the remains of harder rocks that withstood the passing of the glaciers; however, as in Loch Tay, several of the islands appear to be crannogs, artificial islands built in prehistoric periods.
People first arrived in the Loch Lomond area around 5000 years ago, during the neolithic era. They left traces of their presence at places around the loch, including Balmaha, Luss, and Inchlonaig. Crannogs, artificial islands used as dwellings for over five millennia, were built at points in the loch. The Romans had a fort within sight of the loch at Drumquhassle. The crannog known as "The Kitchen", located off the island of Clairinsh, may have later been used as a place for important meetings by Clan Buchanan whose clan seat had been on Clairinsh since 1225: this usage would be in line with other crannogs such as that at Finlaggan on Islay, used by Clan Donald.
During the Early Medieval period viking raiders sailed up Loch Long, hauled their longboats over at the narrow neck of land at Tarbet, and sacked several islands in the loch.
The area surrounding the loch later become part of the province of Lennox, which covered much of the area of the later county of Dunbartonshire.
Loch Lomond became a popular destination for travellers, such that when James Boswell and Samuel Johnson visited the islands of Loch Lomond on the return from their tour of the Western Isles in 1773, the area was already firmly enough established as a destination for Boswell to note that it would be unnecessary to attempt any description.
The Highland Boundary Fault is a major fault zone that traverses Scotland from Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. It separates two different geological terranes which give rise to two distinct physiographic terrains: the Highlands and the Lowlands, and in most places it is recognisable as a change in topography. Where rivers cross the fault, they often pass through gorges, and the associated waterfalls can be a barrier to salmon migration.
The fault is believed to have formed in conjunction with the Strathmore syncline to the south-east during the Acadian orogeny in a transpressive regime that caused the uplift of the Grampian block and a small sinistral movement on the Highland Boundary Fault.
Discovery
One of the earliest and most prominent references to the Highland Boundary Fault was by George Barrow in 1912 ʻOn the Geology of Lower Dee-side and the Southern Highland Borderʼ, which highlights the nature of the rocks accompanying the Highland Border and describes the mineral zones associated with metamorphism. In the same publication, Barrow also outlines the ʻHighland Faultʼ and the areas where he believes there are planes of overthrust. Barrowʼs description of the structural nature of the rocks along the Highland Border suggests that rocks along both ends of the fault plane are indistinguishable from one another, with no brecciation.
Extent of fault
Aligned southwest to northeast from Lochranza on Arran, the Highland Boundary Fault bisects Bute and crosses the southeastern parts of the Cowal and Rosneath peninsulas, as it passes up the Firth of Clyde. It comes ashore near Helensburgh, then continues through Loch Lomond. The loch islands of Inchmurrin, Creinch, Torrinch, and Inchcailloch all lie on the Highland Boundary Fault. From Loch Lomond the Highland Boundary Fault continues to Aberfoyle, then Callander, Comrie and Crieff. It then forms the northern boundary of Strathmore and reaches the North Sea immediately north of Stonehaven near the ruined Chapel of St. Mary and St. Nathalan. Aeromagnetic maps of Great Britain and Northern Ireland show that the Highland Boundary Fault can be traced from Ireland to the region of Greenock. In these areas, the Highland Boundary Fault is seen to be dividing a northerly low area from a southerly high area.The fault is often considered a terrane boundary: the Midland Valley terrane lies to the south whilst the Southern Highlands or Grampian terrane lies to the north In 1970, Hall and Dagley identified the Highland Boundary Fault as coincident with a regional magnetic feature dividing a string of negative anomalies in the north from positive ones in the south. On discovering this, Hall and Dagley concluded that the observed trend, which followed the length of the Dalradian trough, transition from positive to negative anomalies. This linear feature of magnetic anomalies has since been referred to as the Fair Head–Clew Bay line.
Features
At present, it is believed that the Highland Boundary Fault was active during two main orogenic events associated with the Caledonian orogeny: the Grampian orogeny in the Early Ordovician and the Acadian orogeny in the Middle Devonian. The fault allowed the Midland Valley to descend as a major rift by up to 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and there was subsequent vertical movement. This earlier vertical movement was later replaced by a horizontal shear. A complementary fault, the Southern Uplands Fault, forms the southern boundary for the Central Lowlands. The age of the Highland Boundary Fault has been inferred to be between Ordovician to middle Devonian and through several generations it has been interpreted as a graben-bounding normal fault, a major sinistral strike-slip fault, a northwest-dipping reverse fault or terrane boundary. The reason the precise nature of the fault is still unknown is because there is little evidence of a continuous fault plane on the surface. More recently, seismic activities marking the fault line have been analysed to show that the 2003 Aberfoyle earthquake had a hypocentre at 4 km (2+1⁄2 mi) depth and was caused by an oblique sinistral strike-slip fault with normal movement. The fault plane was estimated to be dipping at 65° NW.
To the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault lie hard Precambrian and Cambrian metamorphic rocks: marine deposits metamorphosed to schists, phyllites and slates, namely the Dalradian Supergroup and the Highland Border Ophiolite suite. To the south and east are Old Red Sandstone conglomerates and sandstones: softer, sedimentary rocks of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. Between these areas lie the quite different rocks of the Highland Border Complex (at one time called the Highland Boundary Complex), a weakly metamorphosed sedimentary sequence of sandstones, lavas, limestones, mudstones and conglomerates. These make up a zone which is found discontinuously along the line of the fault and which is up to 1.2 kilometres (3⁄4 mi) in width.
The Dalradian Supergroup consists of metasedimentary rocks which underwent polyphase deformation and metamorphism during the Precambrian and early Paleozoic. The oldest Dalradian rocks (the Grampian Group) were deformed and metamorphosed around 750 Ma. The deposition of younger Dalradian sediments continued until 590 Ma, when the sediments underwent transformation to the greenschist facies during the Proterozoic and Ordovician.
Modeling of gravity and magnetic data along the fault has confirmed the presence of an extensive ophiolite suite. The Dalradian metasedimentary rocks are overlain by an obducted ophiolite that is continuous for at least several kilometres on either side of the Highland Boundary Fault. The models generated from magnetic data suggest that the ophiolite is only slightly displaced vertically by the fault.
The Old Red Sandstone is a magnafacies of red beds and lacustrine deposits from the Late Silurian to the Carboniferous. The NE segment of the Highland Boundary Fault is marked by an abrupt change in the dip of the Old Red Sandstone from around 20° to near-vertical and subsequently exposes the Old Red Sandstone basement.
It is currently believed that there were two main displacement events along the Highland Boundary Fault: the Acadian, and the post-Acadian.
Evidence for the Acadian displacement event is based on the geochemical study of detrital garnets in the Lower Old Red Sandstone on the Northern limb of the Strathmore Basin. These garnets were linked to those in isolated Dalradian sediments in the northwest, providing evidence for post-Early Devonian (Acadian) movement to be only few tens of kilometers.
In addition, the Lintrathen ignimbrite, which is present at the base of the Lower Devonian sequence was traced along the fault and it was found that the displacement was both short and lateral.
The post-Acadian movements are highlighted in the stratigraphy of the region. The Lower Old Red Sandstone is unconformably overlain by Upper Old Red Sandstone, where the Upper Old Red Sandstone is tilted close to the Highland Boundary Fault.
Red squirrels
The boundary is used as a natural barrier to prevent northwards movement of grey squirrels, thus protecting the only red squirrel population in the Highlands
Aambyvalley Rd.,Lonavala,Mah.,India
Endemic....unique part is the shell which is on the left side(sinistral)
Note the sinistral shell with the opening on the left when the spire is vertical. In this species both the proto-conch and the adult shell are sinistral.
Pāpala, Pāpala kēpau
Australasian catchbird tree, Australasian catchbirdtree
Nyctaginaceae (Four O'Clock family)
Indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands (Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island)
Oʻahu (Cultivated)
Hawaiian Names:
The name pāpala also is used for the native species of Charpentiera.
"Hawaiian Dictionaries" defines kēpau as "lead, pitch, tar, resin, pewter; gum, as on ripe breadfruit; any sticky juice, as of pāpala."
Pāpala kēpau are truly fascinating plants with a sad, but interesting, cultural history. A sinistral use for the sticky fruit was to trap native birds. [6] The captured victims provided feathers for the strikingly colorful cloaks (capes), helmets, lei, images and kāhili. Birds such as 'ō'ō and mamo were plucked of their few moulting yellow feathers and set free to grow more for the next season. However, this was not the case with the 'i'iwi and 'apapane which were covered with red- or green-colored feathers and would not have survived the plucking. They were captured, plucked and eaten.
Medicinally, early Hawaiians used the milky sap from pāpala kēpau was used for cuts. The cooked leaves were used to cure pāʻaoʻao (childhood disease with physical weakening) and for lepo paʻa (constipation).
They also used an adhesive gum from pāpala kēpau for repairing bowls.
Etymology
The former generic name Pisonia is named for William Piso (ca. 1611-1678), Dutch physician, pharmacist, botanist, and early writer on medicinal plants of Brazil.
Regarding the specific epithet "The Names of Plants" makes this comment:
"Brunonia, brunonianus -a -um, brunonis Smaethman’s* name to commemorate Robert Brown (vide infra) (Brunoniaceae) brunonianus -a -um, brunonis -is -e for Robert Brown FRS (1773–1858), English botanist."
* Henry Smeathman (1742–1786) was an English naturalist. He spend four years in and around the Sierra Leone studying the natural history.
When in water (right), shell is more translucent, lighter and brighter in colour, and less reflective, than when in air (left).
1: internal view of row of palatal protrusions at earlier position of palatal lip.
2: external view through translucent shell of same row of protrusions as in ‘1’.
Shell height 6.1 mm. Salting on tidal River Dee, Flintshire, Wales. December 2018.
Full DESCRIPTION BELOW
Sets of OTHER SPECIES: www.flickr.com/photos/56388191@N08/collections/
GLOSSARY BELOW
Preface
Specimens illustrated in this account which were supplied to Amgueddfa Cymru (the Natural History Museum, Wales) were sequenced by Ben Rowson who found no difference in the DNA of M. myosotis and M. denticulata and concluded that they were a single species; Myosotella myosotis (Draparnaud, 1801). This has been accepted by WoRMS; see www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=139672 ]
A possibility, raised by Martins (2013), is that the true M. myosotis (Draparnaud, 1801) occurs in the Mediterranean and that both British shell forms are ecotypes of M. denticulata (Montagu, 1803). This account, written before molecular sequencing united them, describes the form previously regarded as M. denticulata.
Because of its special habitat intermediate between terrestrial and marine, this species, and its Leucophytia relative in the family Ellobiidae, are omitted from some identification guides, while variously appearing in others devoted solely to either terrestrial, marine or even freshwater mollusca.
Myosotella myosotis form denticulata (Montagu, 1803)
Synonyms: Voluta denticulata Montagu, 1803; Voluta ringens W. Turton, 1819; Ovatella denticulata (Montagu, 1803); Alexia ringicula Locard, 1893; Conovulus denticulatus in Forbes & Hanley (1853); Melampus myosotis (part of) in Jeffreys (1869);
Vernacular Probably applied at times to both M. denticulata and M. myosotis: Mouse-eared Alexia, Mouse ear(ed) snail (English); Clust llygoden (Welsh); Evesnegl (Danish); Muizenoortje (Dutch); Ovatelle naine des vases (French); Stranddvärgsnäcka (Swedish); Mäuseöhrchen (German);
Applied to just this form: Many-toothed mouse-ear (English); Gewoon muizenoortje (Dutch);
Description
When in water, shell is more translucent, lighter and brighter in colour, and less reflective, than when in air 1Md flic.kr/p/2ejw2rW . The following shell description is of specimens in air.
Shell
Juvenile shell usually less than 6 mm high. Adult shells often less than 6mm , usual maximum 7.5 mm, exceptionally 10 mm 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV . Fusiform shell, width c.45% to 55% of height 3Md flic.kr/p/2fkP2h7 . Small spire with sharp apex; body whorl c. 73% of shell height, usually a little less on small specimens. Apex slightly twisted 3Md flic.kr/p/2fkP2h7 due to change from sinistral protoconch to dextral teleoconch. Shell-wall thin, opaque or slightly translucent, with a silky sheen when clean 4Md flic.kr/p/2fkP21f . Up to 8 moderately convex whorls separated by distinct shallow sutures. On juveniles, the periostracum is drawn into a row of bristles below the sutures 5Md flic.kr/p/2fkP1V5 , but they are worn off over time. Earliest juveniles with three or fewer whorls lack periostracum and bristles; their shells are white-translucent with punctate spiral lines which may persist for a time as the shell grows ; occasionally visible through periostracum on later whorls 6Md flic.kr/p/2fkP1HS . Very fine, closely spaced, costal lines sometimes visible on adults, especially on spire whorls 6Md flic.kr/p/2fkP1HS , often most clearly developed on subsutural ramp 4Md flic.kr/p/2fkP21f . Adults have growth lines; most easily seen when periostracum is worn 3Md flic.kr/p/2fkP2h7 , less so when periostracum is intact 7Md flic.kr/p/2fkP1Gj . Usually no umbilicus except for an umbilicus-like slit in the apex caused by the change from the sinistral larval shell (protoconch) to a dextral shell 8Md flic.kr/p/2fqtbmD . Within the shell, when it reaches 2½ whorls, the columella and septa between the spire whorls are resorbed by the mantle, leaving an open space except for the columella and septum of the body whorl. Aperture 50% to 60% of shell height 3Md flic.kr/p/2fkP2h7 , juveniles usually nearer the higher limit; shaped like a narrow ear with a rounded base and a sharp adapical angle 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV . Thin palatal (outer) lip on specimens over 3mm high has two to seven (or more) protrusions (folds/teeth/denticles) 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV which may be set into a pale calcareous ridge within the aperture near the palatal rim. Further sets of protrusions are often present further back in the aperture, marking previous positions of palatal lip 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV . The palatal lip is sometimes weakly reflected on large adults 9Md flic.kr/p/2fkP1kN . The columellar-parietal lip (inner lip of aperture) has three or four protrusions . The parietal lip consists of a wide glazed area on the body whorl, but is often difficult to discern 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV & 10Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZXU . Juveniles less than 3mm high may not have developed protrusions sufficiently to be distinguished from M. myosotis. For a clear view of the features within the aperture, including far-back rows of teeth, the animal may need a prod with a small brush to make it withdraw, and the shell requires tilting at different angles 11Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZsA . There is no operculum . Exterior colour varies from yellowish brown to brown 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV . The protoconch and juvenile shell up to about 1.4mm height are white, and are retained as a white apex on the adult 3Md flic.kr/p/2fkP2h7 & 14Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZ4E . On dead stranded shells the periostracum often peels off and the colour bleaches to whitish 10Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZXU .
Body
Specimens from non-salting conditions have white or very pale grey flesh; colour on an individual varies with degree of extension and whether in air or water 12Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZeE . The colour of the occasional ones from under stones on saltings is similar to that of M. myosotis with darker grey arranged in transverse bands across the dorsum, and colour intensity usually increases with size/age 13Md flic.kr/p/RE4vht . The tentacles on all forms are usually grey or greyish. Sides of foot are paler than the dorsum of grey specimens 12Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZeE & 13Md flic.kr/p/RE4vht . The mantle sometimes projects a short way beyond the aperture rim of the palatal lip, but is not reflected onto it 13Md flic.kr/p/RE4vht . The parietal lip on the body whorl is a glaze formed by the mantle extending onto it 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV & 10Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZXU . The mantle cavity, the roof of which contains a network of haemolymph vessels 14Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZ4E , functions as a lung for respiration. It is sealed off from the exterior by a thick, white or brownish-white, mantle-collar which fits closely round the body as it extends or retracts 6Md flic.kr/p/2fkP1HS & 24Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6Ja . The collar has a pneumostome which, when in air, can be opened and closed 15Md flic.kr/p/2fqt9Jk for respiration and humidity control but, when immersed, does not effectively retain air or exclude water 16Md flic.kr/p/RE4uWD & 17Md flic.kr/p/2fqt9ta . The rectum and part of the intestine, visible through translucent shells in water 17Md flic.kr/p/2fqt9ta , runs along the rear edge of the roof of the mantle cavity to the anus 18Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6XM which opens to the exterior in a folded part of the mantle-collar in the adapical angle of the aperture close to the pneumostome . The head has two cephalic tentacles; nearly linear with a bluntly pointed tip (subulate) when dry, and conical and paler when swollen with water 13Md flic.kr/p/RE4vht . When not fully extended, they are contracted, becoming annulated in the basal half 19Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYE3 , not retracted by inversion into the body. The tentacles widely diverge from their bases near the midline of the head 20Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6TZ . The distal half of the tentacles, sometimes slightly bulbous, is opaque grey, sometimes with a brownish tint 21Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYzU , and contains sensory chemoreceptor cells (Wondrak, 1984). There is an internal black eye within the posteromesial base of each tentacle 19Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYE3 . The head in front of the tentacles forms a broad, slightly bilobed “muzzle” (Forbes & Hanley,1853) 22Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6LV which can be variably configured, but not cylindrically to form a snout like that of many marine gastropods. Near the anterior edge of the muzzle are two button-like, pads (“fungiform bodies” of Wondrak, 1984) which contain sensory cells 21Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYzU , but they are inconspicuous on animals with white flesh. Ventrally, the mouth is protected by white outer-lip lobes. When feeding, the ventrally translucent-white muzzle is spread out flat on the substrate and the outer lips moved aside to expose the mouth edged anteriorly by the rim of the red-brown jaw 23Md flic.kr/p/24NUzJ8 , and to allow the extension of the anterior of the radula covered in thousands of white teeth. When translucent, the muzzle may reveal dorsally the oral tube leading from the mouth to the buccal mass, and the oesophagus passing from it towards the stomach 20Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6TZ . On weakly pigmented, translucent specimens the dumbbell-shaped, dorsal part of the nerve ring with two cerebral ganglia may be visible 20Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6TZ . The ring encircles the oesophagus. It and its ganglia that innervate organs on the head are the nearest approximation in gastropods to a centralised brain, but other ganglia distributed on nerve cords around the body innervate other organs. The anterior edge of the translucent white sole is broad and gently curved or almost straight, sometimes with a slightly indented middle, and tapers to a rounded posterior 22Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6LV . M. denticulata is a protandrous hermaphrodite. The common genital aperture is hidden beneath the mantle on the right of the animal. The female opening is covered by a thin lip of integument which continues forwards as a narrow fold enclosing the vas deferens 18Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6XM to the male aperture on the right of the head from which penis with vas deferens can be everted for mating by hydrostatic pressure of haemolymph.
When immersed in water, the body absorbs water, swells, and it and the shell become paler and more translucent, sometimes, revealing internal organs 24Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6Ja , 17Md flic.kr/p/2fqt9ta ,18Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6XM & 20Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6TZ . A dissection was not made for this species/ecotype. Most published anatomy accounts are of M. Myosotis sensu lato which includes this species. Dissections can be seen of M. myosotis in its account at flic.kr/s/aHsmv1sTC7 images 32 to 37.
Key identification features
Features 1 to 4, below, accord with Forbes & Hanley (1853) and Gittenberger (2004). The former aggregated M. myosotis sensu stricto with M. denticulata but “scrupulously kept apart their description.” Many currently used identification guides aggregate them and their features under M. myosotis sensu lato. Consequently, distribution maps on GBIF and NBN include many M. denticulata occurrences under “M. myosotis”, and the M. denticulata maps have under-representation of its occurrence.
To observe aperture sculpture the animal must be well withdrawn, and the shell tilted at different angles. Sometimes the outer (palatal) lip sculpture of an earlier growth stage is visible deep into the aperture and should be used if the sculpture on new growth has not yet developed. It is advisable to examine several specimens of different sizes from a site; sometimes both are present..
Myosotella denticulata(Montagu, 1803).
1. Live shell brown (beachworn shells may be dull whitish). Usual adult height 3.5 mm to 7.5 mm, exceptionally 10 mm 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV .
2. Inner (columellar/parietal) lip has 3 or 4 apertural protrusions 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV .
3.Outer (palatal) lip has 2 to 7 (or more) apertural protrusions 2Md flic.kr/p/24NUBLV sometimes set into a pale ridge which occasionally submerges them. [If no protrusions, check further back in aperture for protrusions on earlier lip position; may be visible from exterior through translucent shell, with or without connecting streaks.]
4. In its typical non-salting habitat, the flesh colour of normally extended dorsal body is white or very pale whitish grey, with darker grey tentacles 12Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZeE . But when it occurs in muddier conditions, it may be as dark as M. myosotis 13Md flic.kr/p/RE4vht .
5. Habitat: typically under slightly embedded stones at Extreme High Water Spring level and above (supralittoral) on sheltered coast without salting vegetation at fully marine salinity. Occasionally under stones on landward edge of Saltmarsh-grass sward by tidal rivers with low salinity 25Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYuy .
Similar species/ecotype
Myosotella myosotis
(Full account flic.kr/s/aHsmv1sTC7 )
1. Live shell brown 28Md flic.kr/p/2fqt7di (beachworn shells may be dull whitish 29Md flic.kr/p/RE4sZH ). Usual adult height 6.5mm to 8mm, exceptionally 10mm .
2. Inner (columellar/parietal) lip has only 2 or 3 apertural protrusions 30Md flic.kr/p/2ejvWdQ .
3. Outer (palatal) lip has a single apertural denticle or none 30Md flic.kr/p/2ejvWdQ . Some have a pale apertural ridge running close to the lip.
4. Flesh colour of normally extended dorsal body is grey 31Md flic.kr/p/2e2z4yD . Shade and intensity varies with age, extension and whether in air or water, but not pure white when adult.
5. Habitat: among vegetation, often under driftwood, on low salinity estuarine saltings and Saltmarsh-grass sward by tidal rivers a little above and below EHWS. Locally abundant. (May occur with M. denticulata under stones on/near saltings 25Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYuy .)
Leucophytia bidentata (Montagu, 1808).
(Full account flic.kr/s/aHsmwhDvaL )
1. Live shell slightly-translucent ivory-white; yellow viscera may show through spire 32Md flic.kr/p/24NUy3H . Usual adult height to 5 mm, occasionally to 7 mm. Sutures shallower and whorls less rounded than on M. myosotis 33Md flic.kr/p/2e2z4hB .
2. Inner (columellar/parietal) lip has 2 protrusions within the aperture; not more 33Md flic.kr/p/2e2z4hB .
3. Outer (palatal) lip has no protrusions or rib (sometimes in a photo, a strong growth line might be mistaken for a rib 33Md flic.kr/p/2e2z4hB .
4. Flesh colour of normally extended dorsal body is almost pure white 32Md flic.kr/p/24NUy3H , but when contracted into body-whorl colour saturation gives it a cream appearance.
5. Lives in deep, silty, rock crevices between High Water Neap level and Low Water Spring level. Also under stones embedded into soil-like substrate at Extreme High Water Spring level and a little above on sheltered coast where it is often with M. denticulata.
Habits and ecology
M. denticulata lives typically under slightly embedded stones at Extreme High Water Spring level and slightly above (supralittoral) on sheltered coast without salting vegetation at fully marine salinity; often in company with Leucophytia bidentata and some terrestrial invertebrates. Occasionally, it also occurs under stones on the landward edge of Saltmarsh-grass sward by tidal rivers with low salinity 25Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYuy , often with more numerous M. myosotis, Assiminea grayana and some terrestrial invertebrates. It does not live in permanently submerged in pools, but can survive and be active for short periods of immersion. As there is no operculum to reduce dessication, the species is an obligatory hygrophile. Its spindle shaped shell is well adapted for moving through small gaps under stones. When moving, the foot and shell are cushioned on a layer of watery mucus which is sometimes mistaken for the foot 26Md flic.kr/p/2fqt7pv & 27Md flic.kr/p/RE4tge which usually underlies little more than the aperture . M. denticulata senses its surroundings with its tentacles and the two button-like pads (“fungiform bodies” of Wondrak, 1984) 21Md flic.kr/p/2fkNYzU near the anterior edge of the muzzle. In its usually dark habitat, its eyes probably function as little more than light detectors to trigger negative phototaxic motion when exposed to light.
It is a euryhaline species capable of surviving immersion in water from 0 p.p.t to full marine salinity or more, but individuals require time to adapt to changes in salinity and may become inactive/moribund when abruptly immersed in water they are unaccustomed to.
Respiration is of atmospheric air in the mantle cavity which is sealed by a collar of thickened mantle 6Md flic.kr/p/2fkP1HS that firmly embraces the body but allows it to extend-from/retract-into the shell 24Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6Ja . A pneumostome (respiratory pore) in the collar 15Md flic.kr/p/2fqt9Jk can be opened for inhalation/exhalation of air or closed to seal the cavity against dehydration. The roof of the mantle cavity contains a network of haemolymph vessels 14Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZ4E and is very thin, enabling oxygen from inhaled air to diffuse into the vessels and for carbon dioxide to leave with the exhaled air. When immersed, air escapes 17Md flic.kr/p/2fqt9ta from the mantle cavity and water enters as the pneumostome is not tightly closed 16Md flic.kr/p/RE4uWD .
When feeding, the muzzle is spread out on the substrate and the radula is extended 23Md flic.kr/p/24NUzJ8 to gather, with the red jaw as a backstop, decaying vegetation, diatoms (Wiese & Richling, 2008) and sediment rich in organic material which are bound into food boli with mucus from the supra pedal gland brought to the mouth along a median groove. Unlike marine prosobranch gastropods, which defecate into a mantle cavity that is cleared by water currents, M. denticulata has a rectum that opens to the exterior through an anus in the mantle collar 18Md flic.kr/p/2e2z6XM , near to, but separate from, the pneumostome so that faeces are expelled without fouling the respiratory mantle-cavity. The soft faeces are wet and loosely bound with mucus when fresh 27Md flic.kr/p/RE4tge . There is no operculum 11Md flic.kr/p/2fkNZsA to provide protection against intrusion by predators, but the numerous protrusions narrow the aperture to impede attack. The aperture protrusions of M. denticulata may have developed in response to the different (more threatening?) predators present in its habitat, which is more terrestrial than that of M. myosotis.
Reproduction: (Details assumed from published accounts of M. myosotis sensu lato.) M. denticulata is a protandrous hermaphrodite which changes its sexual function in the wild when 1½ to 2 years old, so younger, 1 to 1½ years, fully mature males mate with older, over 1½ years, females (Schultes, 2014) using the stout, conical penis everted from the side near the posterior of the right tentacle. Female deposits 15 to 80 egg capsules in a small, yellow or white, frog-spawn-like mass (Morton, 1954 and Gittenberger, 2004). Each ovoid capsule contains a single ovum. The cases are attached to each other in a loosely convoluted chain by a filament (chalaziform process) at each end. The closely packed cases with intervening clear fluid are contained in a tough binding membrane which is attached to stones. There is a larval veliger stage, with sinistral shell, which is passed entirely within the ovum (Morton, 1954).
Distribution and status
Europe from England to Mediterranean and Azores. GBIF map, www.gbif.org/species/4359191
Locally common in suitable habitat with rocks in Britain but records from vegetated saltings are likely to be the species/ecotype M. myosotis sensu stricto. NBN map
species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0001702111
Irish distribution, National biodiversity data centre, in Mollusc Ireland: www.habitas.org.uk/molluscireland/species.asp?ID=121
Acknowledgements
I gratefully thank Ben Rowson of the National Museum Wales for his help with the account, but any errors or omissions are mine.
Links and references
Anderson, R. MolluscIreland, accessed January 2019. www.habitas.org.uk/molluscireland/species.asp?ID=121
Forbes, E. & Hanley S. 1849-53. A history of the British mollusca and their shells. vol. 4 (1853), 190 – 197 & plate CXXV. London, van Voorst. (AsConovulus denticulatus var. myosotis.)
Free pdf at archive.org/details/historyofbritish04forbe/page/190
plate at archive.org/details/historyofbritish04forbe/page/n565
Fretter, V. & Peake, J. 1975. Pulmonates functional anatomy and physiology. Vol.1. London. Academic Press.
Gittenberger, E. et al. 2004. De Nederlandse zoetwatermollusken. Leiden, Netherlands, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis.
Heller J. 2015. Marine Ancestors of most Land Snails: Pulmonates. In: Sea Snails. Springer, Cham. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-15452-7_10
Jeffreys, J.G. 1862-69. British conchology. vol. 5 (1869). London, van Voorst. (As Melampus myosotis (including var. ringens = Myosotella denticulata); Free pdf at archive.org/stream/britishconcholog05jeffr#page/106/mode/2up . Use slide at base of page to select pp.106-109.)
Martins, A.M. de F. 1996. Anatomy and systematics of the western Atlantic Ellobidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Malacologia 37(2): 163 – 332.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13113594#page/179/mode/1up
Martins, A.M. de F. & Mendes, A.R.M. 2013. Do cosmopolitans speciate? Anatomical diversity of Myosotella in Azores. Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos. Ponta Delgada, Açores, Portugal. Poster for World Congress of Malacology 2013 in pdf: www.researchgate.net/publication/264339925_Do_cosmopolita... .
Montagu, G. 1808. Supplement to: 1803 Testacea Britannica, or, Natural history of British shells, marine, land, and fresh-water, including the most minute : systematically arranged and embellished with figures. London, J. White.
Description of Leucophtia bidentata as Voluta bidentata pp. 100-101.
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24430722#page/806/mode/1up
Plate 30, fig.2:
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24430722#page/917/mode/1up
Morton, J. E. 1955. The functional morphology of the British Ellobiidae (Gastropoda Pulmonata) with special reference to the digestive and reproductive systems. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Ser. B .
239, No. 661: 89-160 www.jstor.org/stable/92507
Schultes, F.W. 2014. Species summary for Ovatella myosotis (Draparnoud, 1801). AnimalBase. SUB Göttingen. www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBas... Accessed January 2019.
Watson, H. I943. Notes on a list of the British non-marine Mollusca. J. Conch. 22: 13 - 22.
Wiese, V. & Richling, I. 2008. Das Mäuseöhrchen Myosotella myosotis (Draparnaud 1801). Arbeitskreis Mollusken NRW.
www.mollusken-nrw.de/weichtier_des_jahres/weichtier2008.htm
Wondrak, G. 1984. Ultrastructure of the sensory epithelia of oral tube, fungiform sensory bodies, and terminal knobs of tentacles of Ovatella
myosotis. Draparnaud (Archaeopulmonata, Gastropoda) J. Morphol. 181: 333-347 .
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jmor.1051810307
Current taxonomy:
www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=139673
Glossary
adapical angle = angle at which outer lip meets body-whorl.
boli = (sing. bolus) small rounded masses, especially of triturated food material.
cerebral = to do with integration of sensory and neural functions to initiate and coordinate body activity.
chalaziform = resembling the two spiral bands (chalazae) in a bird's egg that attach the yolk to opposite ends of the lining membrane.
columella = solid or hollow axial “little column” around which gastropod shell spirals; hidden inside shell, except on final whorl next to lower part of inner lip of aperture where hollow ones may end in an umbilicus or siphonal canal.
columellar = (adj.) of or near central axis of coiled gastropod.
columellar lip = lower (abapical) part of inner lip of aperture.
costa (pl. costae) = rib running across a whorl of a gastropod shell at approximately right-angles to direction of coiling and any spiral striae.
costal (adj.) = of, or arranged like, costae.
dextral = (of gastropod shell) in apertural view with spire uppermost, the aperture is on the right. Most gastropod species adults have dextral shells.
distal = away from centre of body or from point of attachment.
diverticula = (for digestion) blind ended tubules in the digestive gland that receive nutrients for digestion.
EHWS = extreme high water spring tide.
euryhaline = able to tolerate a wide variation in salinty.
fusiform = slender, spindle-shaped, tapering almost equally towards both ends.
ganglia = (sing. ganglion) knots on a nerve cord containing sensory cell bodies that conduct impulses to (innervate) organs of the body.
haemolymph = circulating fluid in molluscs that carries nutrients, waste and hormones. Analagous to vertebrate blood, but most molluscs have copper-based haemocyanin in it instead of red haemoglobin to carry oxygen. It may be tinged blue when oxygenated; colourless when depleted of oxygen.
halophyte = plant tolerant of saline soil and periodic tidal immersion, usually on saltmarshes, estuarine shores and sides of tidal rivers.
hygrophile = living in moist, humid, but not submerged, conditions.
(obligatory hygrophile = only able to live in such conditions.)
mantle = sheet of tissue that secretes the shell, covers the viscera and forms a cavity in gastropods. In terrestrial gastropods ('pulmonates') the cavity roof contains a network of haemolymph ('blood') vessels enabling the cavity to act like a lung.
mesial = on or facing towards the midline of the body.
operculum = plate of horny conchiolin, rarely calcareous, used to close shell aperture of prosobranch gastropods.
palatal lip = outer lip of gastropod aperture.
parietal lip ( or parietal wall) = upper part of inner side of gastropod aperture, often lacking clear lip structure with just a glaze on side of whorl adapically of columellar lip.
periostracum = thin horny layer of proteinaceous material often coating shells.
posteromesial = at the rear facing towards the midline of the body.
prosobranch = member of Prosobranchia, one of three subclasses into which the class Gastropoda (slugs and snails) was divided during the 20th Century (other two were Pulmonata and Opisthobranchia). This classification is no longer used by scientists, but prosobranch is a useful informal term to signify (mainly marine) snails breathing with a ctenidium (comblike gill inside mantle cavity), an operculum, and a shell which can accommodate the whole body.
protandrous hermaphrodite = each individual starts mature life as a functioning male, later changing to female function.
protoconch = apical whorls produced during embryonic and larval stages of gastropod; often different in form from other whorls (teleoconch).
protrusions = teeth, denticles, folds, lamellae or cogs (terms used by various authors).
punctate = with pinprick-like depressions.
resorb = absorb what was previously secreted; break it down into component materials and disperse into the circulation.
resorption = the process of absorbing what was previously secreted by breaking it down into component materials and dispersal into the circulation.
salting = area of salt tolerant vascular plants rooted in sediment between mean high water mark (MHW) and extreme high water of spring tides (EHWS). [Preferred synonym for “saltmarsh” as much of salting not marshy.]
septa = plural of septum; internal partition separating two chambers/ shell-whorls of a gastropod.
septum = internal partition separating two chambers/ shell-whorls of a gastropod.
sinistral = (of gastropod shell) in apertural view with spire uppermost, the aperture is on the left. Most gastropod species adults have dextral shells.
subsutural = close below the suture when shell positioned with apex uppermost.
subulate = slender and tapering to a point like onion leaf or awl.
suture = groove or line where whorls of gastropod shell adjoin.
teleoconch = entire gastropod shell other than the apical, embryonic & larval stage protoconch.
triturate = reduce to small particles.
vascular plants = plants that have vascular tissues to transport water and nutrients through the plant. Include all seed-bearing plants, ferns and horsetails. Usually terrestrial or in freshwater or brackish water; a few, such as Zostera, live in fully marine salinity water.
Combat Engineering has existed for almost as long as combat. As humans reached for the stars, the idea followed the along. The Helios-class was designed to support front line combat operations; it is able to jam enemy sensors, repair external damage and boost friendly shield levels.
The pictured version belongs to the Sciencia Sinistral, an independent group of scientists and researchers who hire out their abilities and experience to the highest bidder. Their combat engineering vessels are hardy enough to survive encounters with an enemy force; the SS version features enhanced jamming capabilities as well as micro-mine launchers to destroy or disable pursuing craft.
Tiny whelk shells, maybe even freshly hatched. Didn't make it. I was wondering what kind they could be but then realized I had the answer - they are Lightning Whelks, given away by their left-handed openings. The term for this is "sinistral". Most shells are spiraled in a "right-handed" direction, called "dextral". Finding a shell spiraling against its nature is somewhat rare, but it happens.
Posted below are the larger ones I found, but small even themselves - full-gown ones get, I dunno, 5"? 6"? The speck above is a grain of sand which I left in the image for a sense of scale.
Lightning Whelk,
Found on Pass-a-Grille Beach, Pinellas Co, FL
Sinistral spiral tubeworms (Spirorbis spirorbis) on a frond of toothed wrack (Fucus serratus) on Ægissíða at low tide, southwest Iceland.
Spirorbis spirorbis is a tiny (3-4 mm) spiral tubeworm that lives attached to the fronds of seaweed, particularly on toothed wrack (Fucus serratus) and bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus). It is a sessile filter feeder that secretes a protective tube of calcium carbonate that winds sinistrally (to the left) around its coiled body.
Loch Lomond is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands. Traditionally forming part of the boundary between the counties of Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire, Loch Lomond is split between the council areas of Stirling, Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire. Its southern shores are about 23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of the centre of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The Loch forms part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002.
Loch Lomond is 36.4 kilometres (22.6 mi) long and between 1 and 8 kilometres (0.62–4.97 mi) wide, with a surface area of 71 km2 (27.5 sq mi). It is the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area; in the United Kingdom, it is surpassed only by Lough Neagh and Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. In the British Isles as a whole there are several larger loughs in the Republic of Ireland. The loch has a maximum depth of about 190 metres (620 ft) in the deeper northern portion, although the southern part of the loch rarely exceeds 30 metres (98 ft) in depth. The total volume of Loch Lomond is 2.6 km3 (0.62 cu mi), making it the second largest lake in Great Britain, after Loch Ness, by water volume.
The loch contains many islands, including Inchmurrin, the largest fresh-water island in the British Isles. Loch Lomond is a popular leisure destination and is featured in the song "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The loch is surrounded by hills, including Ben Lomond on the eastern shore, which is 974 metres (3,196 ft) in height and the most southerly of the Scottish Munro peaks. A 2005 poll of Radio Times readers voted Loch Lomond as the sixth greatest natural wonder in Britain.
Formation
The depression in which Loch Lomond lies was carved out by glaciers during the final stages of the last ice age, during a return to glacial conditions known as the Loch Lomond Readvance between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago. The loch lies on the Highland Boundary Fault, and the difference between the Highland and Lowland geology is reflected in the shape and character of the loch: in the north the glaciers dug a deep channel in the Highland schist, removing up to 600 m of bedrock to create a narrow, fjord-like finger lake. Further south the glaciers were able to spread across the softer Lowland sandstone, leading to a wider body of water that is rarely more than 30 m deep. In the period following the Loch Lomond Readvance the sea level rose, and for several periods Loch Lomond was connected to the sea, with shorelines identified at 13, 12 and 9 metres above sea level (the current loch lies at 8 m above sea level).
Islands
The loch contains thirty or more other islands, depending on the water level. Several of them are large by the standards of British bodies of freshwater. Inchmurrin, for example, is the largest island in a body of freshwater in the British Isles. Many of the islands are the remains of harder rocks that withstood the passing of the glaciers; however, as in Loch Tay, several of the islands appear to be crannogs, artificial islands built in prehistoric periods.
People first arrived in the Loch Lomond area around 5000 years ago, during the neolithic era. They left traces of their presence at places around the loch, including Balmaha, Luss, and Inchlonaig. Crannogs, artificial islands used as dwellings for over five millennia, were built at points in the loch. The Romans had a fort within sight of the loch at Drumquhassle. The crannog known as "The Kitchen", located off the island of Clairinsh, may have later been used as a place for important meetings by Clan Buchanan whose clan seat had been on Clairinsh since 1225: this usage would be in line with other crannogs such as that at Finlaggan on Islay, used by Clan Donald.
During the Early Medieval period viking raiders sailed up Loch Long, hauled their longboats over at the narrow neck of land at Tarbet, and sacked several islands in the loch.
The area surrounding the loch later become part of the province of Lennox, which covered much of the area of the later county of Dunbartonshire.
Loch Lomond became a popular destination for travellers, such that when James Boswell and Samuel Johnson visited the islands of Loch Lomond on the return from their tour of the Western Isles in 1773, the area was already firmly enough established as a destination for Boswell to note that it would be unnecessary to attempt any description.
The Highland Boundary Fault is a major fault zone that traverses Scotland from Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. It separates two different geological terranes which give rise to two distinct physiographic terrains: the Highlands and the Lowlands, and in most places it is recognisable as a change in topography. Where rivers cross the fault, they often pass through gorges, and the associated waterfalls can be a barrier to salmon migration.
The fault is believed to have formed in conjunction with the Strathmore syncline to the south-east during the Acadian orogeny in a transpressive regime that caused the uplift of the Grampian block and a small sinistral movement on the Highland Boundary Fault.
Discovery
One of the earliest and most prominent references to the Highland Boundary Fault was by George Barrow in 1912 ʻOn the Geology of Lower Dee-side and the Southern Highland Borderʼ, which highlights the nature of the rocks accompanying the Highland Border and describes the mineral zones associated with metamorphism. In the same publication, Barrow also outlines the ʻHighland Faultʼ and the areas where he believes there are planes of overthrust. Barrowʼs description of the structural nature of the rocks along the Highland Border suggests that rocks along both ends of the fault plane are indistinguishable from one another, with no brecciation.
Extent of fault
Aligned southwest to northeast from Lochranza on Arran, the Highland Boundary Fault bisects Bute and crosses the southeastern parts of the Cowal and Rosneath peninsulas, as it passes up the Firth of Clyde. It comes ashore near Helensburgh, then continues through Loch Lomond. The loch islands of Inchmurrin, Creinch, Torrinch, and Inchcailloch all lie on the Highland Boundary Fault. From Loch Lomond the Highland Boundary Fault continues to Aberfoyle, then Callander, Comrie and Crieff. It then forms the northern boundary of Strathmore and reaches the North Sea immediately north of Stonehaven near the ruined Chapel of St. Mary and St. Nathalan. Aeromagnetic maps of Great Britain and Northern Ireland show that the Highland Boundary Fault can be traced from Ireland to the region of Greenock. In these areas, the Highland Boundary Fault is seen to be dividing a northerly low area from a southerly high area.The fault is often considered a terrane boundary: the Midland Valley terrane lies to the south whilst the Southern Highlands or Grampian terrane lies to the north In 1970, Hall and Dagley identified the Highland Boundary Fault as coincident with a regional magnetic feature dividing a string of negative anomalies in the north from positive ones in the south. On discovering this, Hall and Dagley concluded that the observed trend, which followed the length of the Dalradian trough, transition from positive to negative anomalies. This linear feature of magnetic anomalies has since been referred to as the Fair Head–Clew Bay line.
Features
At present, it is believed that the Highland Boundary Fault was active during two main orogenic events associated with the Caledonian orogeny: the Grampian orogeny in the Early Ordovician and the Acadian orogeny in the Middle Devonian. The fault allowed the Midland Valley to descend as a major rift by up to 4,000 m (13,000 ft) and there was subsequent vertical movement. This earlier vertical movement was later replaced by a horizontal shear. A complementary fault, the Southern Uplands Fault, forms the southern boundary for the Central Lowlands. The age of the Highland Boundary Fault has been inferred to be between Ordovician to middle Devonian and through several generations it has been interpreted as a graben-bounding normal fault, a major sinistral strike-slip fault, a northwest-dipping reverse fault or terrane boundary. The reason the precise nature of the fault is still unknown is because there is little evidence of a continuous fault plane on the surface. More recently, seismic activities marking the fault line have been analysed to show that the 2003 Aberfoyle earthquake had a hypocentre at 4 km (2+1⁄2 mi) depth and was caused by an oblique sinistral strike-slip fault with normal movement. The fault plane was estimated to be dipping at 65° NW.
To the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault lie hard Precambrian and Cambrian metamorphic rocks: marine deposits metamorphosed to schists, phyllites and slates, namely the Dalradian Supergroup and the Highland Border Ophiolite suite. To the south and east are Old Red Sandstone conglomerates and sandstones: softer, sedimentary rocks of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. Between these areas lie the quite different rocks of the Highland Border Complex (at one time called the Highland Boundary Complex), a weakly metamorphosed sedimentary sequence of sandstones, lavas, limestones, mudstones and conglomerates. These make up a zone which is found discontinuously along the line of the fault and which is up to 1.2 kilometres (3⁄4 mi) in width.
The Dalradian Supergroup consists of metasedimentary rocks which underwent polyphase deformation and metamorphism during the Precambrian and early Paleozoic. The oldest Dalradian rocks (the Grampian Group) were deformed and metamorphosed around 750 Ma. The deposition of younger Dalradian sediments continued until 590 Ma, when the sediments underwent transformation to the greenschist facies during the Proterozoic and Ordovician.
Modeling of gravity and magnetic data along the fault has confirmed the presence of an extensive ophiolite suite. The Dalradian metasedimentary rocks are overlain by an obducted ophiolite that is continuous for at least several kilometres on either side of the Highland Boundary Fault. The models generated from magnetic data suggest that the ophiolite is only slightly displaced vertically by the fault.
The Old Red Sandstone is a magnafacies of red beds and lacustrine deposits from the Late Silurian to the Carboniferous. The NE segment of the Highland Boundary Fault is marked by an abrupt change in the dip of the Old Red Sandstone from around 20° to near-vertical and subsequently exposes the Old Red Sandstone basement.
It is currently believed that there were two main displacement events along the Highland Boundary Fault: the Acadian, and the post-Acadian.
Evidence for the Acadian displacement event is based on the geochemical study of detrital garnets in the Lower Old Red Sandstone on the Northern limb of the Strathmore Basin. These garnets were linked to those in isolated Dalradian sediments in the northwest, providing evidence for post-Early Devonian (Acadian) movement to be only few tens of kilometers.
In addition, the Lintrathen ignimbrite, which is present at the base of the Lower Devonian sequence was traced along the fault and it was found that the displacement was both short and lateral.
The post-Acadian movements are highlighted in the stratigraphy of the region. The Lower Old Red Sandstone is unconformably overlain by Upper Old Red Sandstone, where the Upper Old Red Sandstone is tilted close to the Highland Boundary Fault.
Red squirrels
The boundary is used as a natural barrier to prevent northwards movement of grey squirrels, thus protecting the only red squirrel population in the Highlands
THE SAGA OF AN ALIEN BIRD AND A NATIVE HAWAIIAN TREE
This is a Leiothrix or Peking robin (Leothrix lutea). The sticky mass coating the poor victim is encased in are non-avian friendly seed pods of Pāpala kēpau (Pisonia brunoniana), also known as the birdcatcher tree. www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/5250129824/in/photolist-...
Hawaiian Name:
The name pāpala also is used for the native species of Charpentiera.
Hawaiian Dictionaries defines kēpau as "lead, pitch, tar, resin, pewter; gum, as on ripe breadfruit; any sticky juice, as of pāpala."
Pāpala kēpau is a truly fascinating plant with a sad, but interesting, cultural history. A sinistral use for the sticky fruit was to trap native birds by early Hawaiians. The captured victims provided feathers for the strikingly colorful cloaks (capes), helmets, lei, images and kāhili. Birds such as ʻōʻō (Moho spp.) and mamo (Drepanis spp.) were seasonally plucked of their few moulting yellow feathers and set free to grow more for the next season. However, this was not the case with the ʻiʻiwi, ʻamakihi and ʻapapane which were totally covered with red- or green-colored feathers and would not have survived the plucking. They were captured, plucked and eaten.
Back to our Leothrix in the photo. Obviously, this tiny bird along with three others are in serious trouble!
Follow the saga & see how it turns out: www.flickr.com/photos/50823119@N08/4767078168/
Shell height 4.7 mm (1). Teleoconch of eight whorls (2). Protoconch of four smooth whorls (3). Body whorl 40% of shell height (4). Elliptical aperture, 24% of shell height (5). Whorl profile flattish (6), but sutures in deep furrows (7). Short siphonal canal (8) visible as a rounded notch abapically (9). Base of body-whorl has smooth, dark spiral band (10) and two inconspicuous whitish spiral riblets (11).
Menai Strait, Wales, March 2012.
Full SPECIES DESCRIPTION BELOW
PDF available at www.researchgate.net/publication/379218882_Cerithiopsis_t...
Sets of OTHER SPECIES: www.flickr.com/photos/56388191@N08/collections/
Cerithiopsis tubercularis (Montagu, 1803)
Synonyms: Murex tubercularis Montagu, 1803; Cerithiopsis tuberculare (Montagu, 1803); Cerithiopsis clarki Forbes & Hanley, 1851.
Current taxonomy: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=139085
Vernacular: Horn shell (English), naaldjebruine, sponshoren (Dutch).
Glossary below
Shell description
C. tubercularis grows up to 6.5 mm high. In profile it is a tall cone with convex sides. It has up to 14 whorls, including the protoconch. The body whorl forms 35-40% of the adult shell height 01Ct flic.kr/p/icR8pf . Juveniles have a shorter stouter cone; the body whorl is about 50% of the shell height on a 2 mm high shell 02Ct flic.kr/p/icR8jL . The nearly flat whorls of the teleoconch are glossy maroon to dark brown, and the sutures are in deep furrows. Each whorl of the teleoconch has three spiral rows of rectangular bead-like tubercles which are evenly spaced to give a square lattice appearance 03Ct flic.kr/p/icR8gj . The base of the body whorl below its periphery has a fourth darker, smooth or very slightly tuberculated, spiral band, and two or three inconspicuous whitish spiral riblets 01Ct flic.kr/p/icR8pf . The protoconch consists of the four apical whorls which form an elongate brownish apex; its whorls are moderately convex and smooth apart from microscopic granulation below the suture sometimes revealed by a scanning electron microscope. The protoconch, which remains the same absolute size at all growth stages, is largest relative to shell height on juvenile shells being about 34% of the height on a 1.4 mm high shell 04Ct flic.kr/p/icR8p5 . Beached strandline shells often have the protoconch damaged or lost. The small elliptical aperture is 20-25% of adult shell height and about 34% of a 1.4 mm high juvenile. There is a short siphonal canal at the base of the aperture 01Ct flic.kr/p/icR8pf & 08Ct flic.kr/p/icRgV1 . The palatal (outer) lip has a sharp, scalloped and strongly arched edge 09Ct flic.kr/p/icR82G . There is no umbilicus. The small, thin, oval, operculum is an incomplete spiral with an excentric nucleus near the basal edge. It is transparent colourless and shows a pair of yellow marks on the underlying opercular disc 05Ct flic.kr/p/icRh3W .
Body description
The short, slender, smooth, bluntly tipped cephalic tentacles each have an eye on the thickened base 06Ct flic.kr/p/icQUYT . There is no snout. Instead there is a small, black, opening 07Ct flic.kr/p/icQURt & 09Ct flic.kr/p/icR82G ventrally between the bases of the tentacles from which a slender acrembolic proboscis can be protruded. The slender, white respiratory siphon has a bifid tip 08Ct flic.kr/p/icRgV1 and rests in the much wider siphonal canal beyond which it does not protrude. The mantle is translucent whitish or whitish and grey like the body and shows the shell colour through it 09Ct flic.kr/p/icR82G . The foot is truncated at the front and tapers to blunt point at the posterior. It is usually extended well beyond the head and can fold across its middle at a transverse groove 09Ct flic.kr/p/icR82G . There is a pair of sulphur-yellow marks on the opercular lobe to which the operculum is attached 10Ct flic.kr/p/icR7MJ . There is a large anterior pedal gland in the widely bilaminate, broad, anterior of the foot 07Ct flic.kr/p/icQURt . The large circular opening of the pedal gland near the centre of the white sole 11Ct flic.kr/p/icQUMR , exudes copious mucus which is formed in a long deep medial groove into a support line for climbing among weed. The genital duct in both sexes is an open groove in the mantle cavity; there is no penis on males.
The ground colour of the body is translucent whitish with varying amounts of grey apart from on the pure white foot 12Ct flic.kr/p/icR7GJ . Frequently, there is a longitudinal band of sulphur-yellow 13Ct flic.kr/p/icR7FS or yellowish-white 09Ct flic.kr/p/icR82G opaque spots behind each eye, but it is sometimes absent 14Ct flic.kr/p/icRwGp . The amount and intensity of grey on the body varies from none 14Ct flic.kr/p/icRwGp to almost solid black 15Ct flic.kr/p/icR7Fb , and can even vary between left and right on the same animal 13Ct flic.kr/p/icR7FS . Often, there are three strong, grey, longitudinal bands between and flanking the tentacles 16Ct flic.kr/p/icQUtV .
Key identification features
Cerithiopsis tubercularis
1) Dextral shell with a tall maroon spire and a short siphonal canal; to 6.5 mm high 01Ct flic.kr/p/icR8pf . Operculum transparent colourless showing yellow of opercular lobe 05Ct flic.kr/p/icRh3W .
2) Three spiral rows of tubercles on whorls 03Ct flic.kr/p/icR8gj .
3) Base of final whorl lacks tubercles and has 2 or 3 spiral ridges 01Ct flic.kr/p/icR8pf .
4) Lives at LWS and sublittorally.
5) Feeds on Hymeniacidon perleve and Halichondria panicea (sponges). Flesh whitish with varying amounts of grey and a little yellow. No snout.
Similar species
Cerithiopsis barleei Jeffreys, 1867
1) Dextral shell to 7 mm high with a short siphonal canal; paler and more slender than C. tubercularis.
2) Three spiral rows of tubercles on whorls.
3) Base of final whorl lacks tubercles & has no spiral ridges.
4) Lives sublittorally, not on shore.
5) Feeds on Suberites domunculus (sponge). Flesh yellowish. No snout.
Cerithiopsis metaxa (della Chiaje, 1828)
1) Dextral shell to 8 mm high; very tall, slender, almost straight sided, yellowish or whitish with a short siphonal canal.
2) Four spiral ridges, 3 or 4 tuberculated, on penultimate whorl.
3) Base of final whorl lacks tubercles.
4) Lives sublittorally, not on shore.
5) Live animal and habits are little known. Probably no snout.
Bittium reticulatum (da Costa, 1778)
1) Dextral shell to 8 mm high. No siphonal canal but often a basal flared lip on aperture. Operculum brown 18Ct flic.kr/p/2pD2Zaj .
2) Four spiral rows of tubercles on whorls 17Ct flic.kr/p/2pD1Q7z .
3) Base of final whorl has several, often weakly defined, spiral ridges with no tubercles18Ct flic.kr/p/2pD2Zaj .
4) Lives at LWS and sublittorally.
5) Flesh fawn-brown with black and white markings and has well developed snout on head 17Ct flic.kr/p/2pD1Q7z .
Several other species resemble C. tubercularis, but when the aperture is viewed with the apex uppermost, it is on the left (sinistral shell). They include Marshallora adversa and Monophorus perversus .
Habitat and ecology
C. tubercularis lives on shores at LWS, and sublittorally to about 100 m. It is a specialist feeder on the sponges Hymeniacidon perlevis (Montagu, 1814)
and Halichondria panicea (Pallas, 1766). To feed it everts a long fine proboscis and inserts it through a sponge’s osculum. Jaws in the proboscis tip loosen soft tissue which is raked back by the fine, long, claw-like teeth of radula to the buccal cavity. It favours sponges on rocks with tufts of red seaweed, such as Lomentaria and Corallina. The shell colour matches that of the weed, among which it climbs with the aid of mucus lines excreted from its pedal gland. It also eats debris and epiphytic and epizooic growths on the weed, especially when young.
It breeds in spring and summer. Males lack a penis and release 1 mm long spermatozeugmata into the water to swim in search of a female. Egg capsules, each containing a large number of minute eggs, are inserted into Hymeniacidon perlevis. Veliger larvae emerge to live in the plankton for a lengthy period during which they develop a long protoconch of four whorls 04Ct flic.kr/p/icR8p5 before settling and metamorphosing.
Distribution and status
C. tubercularis occurs from southern Norway to the Azores and eastern Mediterranean. GBIF map www.gbif.org/species/2301765 . It is recorded from Ireland and the south, west and north of Britain from Kent to Orkney. It is absent from the north-east Irish Sea and the North Sea coast of Britain between Kent and Orkney. It is occasionally common on the surface of intertidal or sublittoral Hymeniacidon perlevis. U.K. map NBN species.nbnatlas.org/species/NBNSYS0000174449
References and links
Forbes, E. & Hanley S. 1849-53. A history of the British mollusca and their shells. vol. 3 (1853), London, van Voorst. (As Cerithiopsis tuberculare).
archive.org/details/historyofbritish03forbe/page/364/mode... .
Plate OO vol.1 archive.org/details/historyofbritish01forbe/page/n633/mod...
Plate XCI vol.4 archive.org/details/historyofbritish04forbe/page/n497/mod...
Fretter, V. and Graham, A. 1962. British prosobranch molluscs: their functional anatomy and ecology. London, Ray Society.
Graham, A. 1988. Molluscs: prosobranch and pyramidellid gastropods. Synopses of the British Fauna (New Series) no.2 (Second edition). Leiden, E.J. Brill/Dr. W. Backhuys. pp.662.
Jeffreys, J.G. 1862-69. British conchology. vol. 4 (1867). London, van Voorst. archive.org/details/britishconcholog04jeffr/page/264/mode... &
archive.org/details/britishconcholog04jeffr/page/n503/mod...
Glossary
abapical = away from the apex of the shell.
acrembolic = (of proboscis) introversible/eversible like finger of glove.
adapical = towards the apex of the shell.
aperture = mouth of gastropod shell; outlet for head and foot.
apical = at the apex.
cephalic = (adj.) of or on the head.
dextral shell = in apertural view with spire uppermost, the aperture is on the right.
height = (of gastropod shells) distance from apex of spire to base of aperture.
LWS = low water spring tide, two periods of a few days each month when tide is lowest.
mantle = sheet of tissue which secretes the shell and forms a cavity for the gill.
opercular = (adj.) of the operculum.
opercular disc = part of foot attached to operculum.
opercular lobe = extension of opercular disc round edge of part of operculum.
operculum = plate of horny conchiolin used to close shell aperture.
osculum = large exhalent opening on some sponges.
plankton = animals and plants that drift in pelagic zone (main body of water).
protoconch = apical whorls produced during embryonic and larval stages of gastropod; often different in form from other whorls (teleoconch).
sinistral = aperture is on the left in apertural view with spire uppermost.
siphon = extension of mantle to form a channel for respiratory water current.
siphonal canal = grooved or tubular extension of outer lip of the shell aperture on some snails, to support the siphon.
spermatozeugma = (pl. spermatozeugmata) structure about 1 mm long that swims by undulating anterior plate to take long tail carrying thousands of sperm long distances through sea in search of female. Found in Epitoniidae and Cerithiopsidae where male lacks penis.
sublittoral = below level of low water spring tide.
suture = groove or line where whorls adjoin.
teleoconch = parts of mollusc shell other than the larval-stage protoconch.
veliger = shelled larva of marine gastropod which swims by beating cilia of a velum (bilobed flap).