Bathymodiolus childressi

Bathymodiolus childressi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Subclass: Pteriomorphia
Order: Mytiloida
Family: Mytilidae
Genus: Bathymodiolus
Species: B. childressi
Binomial name
Bathymodiolus childressi
Gustafson, Turner, Lutz, & Vrijenhoek, 1998[1]

Bathymodiolus childressi is a species of a deepwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk species in the family Mytilidae.

Although this species has been known since 1985,[1] it was formally described as a species in 1998.[1]

Contents

Habitat

It lives in cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico.[2]

Bathymodiolus childressi is stenothermal species living in temperatures ranging from 6.5 to 7.2°C.[3] However it was able to survive the temperature of 20°C in the laboratory.[3]

Interspecific relationships

The snail Bathynerita naticoidea can detect beds with mussel Bathymodiolus childressi, because it is attracted by a water altered by this species of mussel,[2] but the nature of the attractant was not discovered yet.[2] This snail also feeds on periphyton of methanotrophic bacteria that grow on shells of Bathymodiolus childressi,[2] on decomposing periostracum of mussels[2] and on byssal fibres of them.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Gustafson R. G., Turner R. D., Lutz R. A. & Vrijenhoek R. C. (1998). "A new genus and five new species of mussels (Bivalvia, Mytilidae) from deep-sea sulfide/hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf of Mexico". Malacologia 40(1-2): 63-112. page 84.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Dattagupta S., Martin J., Liao S., Carney R. S. & Fisher C. R. (2007). "Deep-sea hydrocarbon seep gastropod Bathynerita naticoidea responds to cues from the habitat-providing mussel Bathymodiolus childressi". Marine Ecology 28(1): 193-198. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0485.2006.00130.x
  3. ^ a b Berger M. S. & Young C. M. (2006). "Physiological response of the cold-seep mussel Bathymodiolus childressi to acutely elevated temperature". Marine Biology 149(6): 1397-1402. doi:10.1007/s00227-006-0310-8