Pachychilus

For the orchid of Orchidaceae family, see Pachystoma.
Pachychilus
Shells of Pachychilus laevissimus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
(unranked): clade Caenogastropoda

clade Sorbeoconcha
Superfamily: Cerithioidea
Family: Pachychilidae
Genus: Pachychilus
I. Lea & H. C. Lea, 1851[1]

Pachychilus, common name jute snails,[2] is a genus of freshwater snails with an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Pachychilidae.

Pachychilus is the type genus of the family Pachychilidae.[3]

Contents

Distribution

Distribution of species in the genus Pachychilus includes:

Species

Species within the genus Pachychilus include:

subgenus Pachychiloides Wenz, 1939[5]

Human use

One of the Maya peoples, the Lacandon people, now Mexico's native peoples from state Chiapas, use one species of Pachychilus known locally as t’unu as a type of protein supplement to their diet.[7] In addition, the shells from this "chuti" snail provide great nutritional value, as they provide calcium and lime when burned. The lime is then added to maize to release amino acids such as tryptophan and lysine and the vitamin niacin, which would otherwise be unavailable from the maize (unable to be metabolized) if the lime were not added.[7]

References

  1. ^ Lea I. & Lea H. C. (1851). "Description of a new genus of the family Melaniana, and of many new species of the genus Melania, chiefly collected by Hugh Cuming, Esq., during his zoological voyage in the East, and now first described". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 18: 179-197. 179.
  2. ^ Healy P. F., Emery K. & Wright L. E. (1990). "Ancient and Modern Maya Exploitation of the Jute Snail (Pachychilus)". Latin American Antiquity 1(2): 170-183. JSTOR.
  3. ^ Bouchet P., Rocroi J.-P., Frýda J., Hausdorf B., Ponder W., Valdés Á. & Warén A. (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". Malacologia: International Journal of Malacology (Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks) 47 (1-2): 1–397. ISBN 3925919724. ISSN 0076-2997. http://www.archive.org/details/malacologia47122005inst. 
  4. ^ a b c Vázquez A. A. & Perera S. (2010). "Endemic Freshwater molluscs of Cuba and their conservation status". Tropical Conservation Science 3(2): 190-199. HTM, PDF.
  5. ^ Wenz (1939). Handb. Paläozool. (4)6(1): 686.
  6. ^ Perrilliat M. D. C., Vega F. J., Espinosa B. & Naranjo-Garcia E. (2008). "Late Cretaceous and Paleogene Freshwater Gastropods from Northeastern Mexico". Journal of Paleontology 82(2): 255-266. doi:10.1666/06-062.1.
  7. ^ a b Nations J. D. (1979). Snail Shells and Maize Preparation: A Lacandon Maya Analogy. American Antiquity 44.3: 568-571.

External links

Pachychilus at National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website.