Dear Harry;-
    From what I can gather, it seems that Lottia, a limpet, is quite common where found---but also quite localized; making it subject to great local disaster.
   So the questions continue: Are there other mollusks similarly at risk in hurricane or tonado belts?
   Len and Bruce: are any of our already beatified Eps in trouble?
    Art
>
> From: "Harry G. Lee" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2004/02/14 Sat PM 01:57:49 EST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: extinctions
>
> Dear Question-man,
>
> Thanks for heeding Henk's advice; you've returned to topic with a, well,
> topical question!
>
> We discussed the instance of Lottia alveus alveus (Conrad, 1831) in this
> forum a little more than five years ago.  This species-level taxon lived a
> monotonous but prosperous life attached to the marine Eelgrass, Zostera
> marina (Linnaeus), in extensive beds along the northeast coast of North
> America from Long Island to Labrador - that is until 1930, when a plague of
> slime mold infestation catastrophically reduced the plant populations,
> leaving the survivors only in brackish backwaters where the parasite (and
> regrettably the obligate epibiont, L. a. a.) could not survive.  No
> specimen of Lottia alveus alveus has been collected since 1929, when it was
> known to be abundant.
>
> I have a specimen 8.5 by 5.2 mm.  It was collected along the shore of Isle
> au Haut, Knox Co., Maine and found its way to the Maxwell Smith (1888-1961)
> Collection.
>
> While there may be other known extinctions in the marine malacofauna since
> recorded history, as far as I know, this is the best-chronicled.
>
> Harry
>
> See Zostera marina at
> <http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/images/401/Magnoliophyta/Liliopsida/Alismatidae/Zosteraceae/Zostera/Z_sp_Kew_Art.html>
> and the story at
> <http://ww2.mcgill.ca/biology/undergra/c465a/biodiver/2000/eelgrass-limpet/eelgrass-limpet.htm#gp>.
>
> Carlton, J., 1993.  Neoextinctions of Marine Invertebrates. American
> Zoology, 33, 499-509.
>
> Carlton, D., J. Carlton, E. Dudley, D. Lindberg, and G. Vermeij, 1991.  The
> first historical extinction of a marine invertebrate in an ocean basin: The
> demise of the Eelgrass Limpet, Lottia alveus. Biological Bulletin 180: 72-80.
>
> Gould, S. J., 1991.  On the loss of a limpet. Natural History [vol. and
> no.?]: 22-27. June.
>
> Harry
>
>
> At 11:14 AM 2/14/2004, you wrote:
> >Yes. I understand the extinctions of land snails. I also imagine that many
> >freshwater bivalves may be lost due to pulution of their streams.
> >    What I was really wondering was about marine mollusks. I know that
> > many shells once listed as rare, have become less rare due to the
> > discovery of their habitat (C. gloria-maris for example); but have any,
> > once listed as rare, completely disappeared?
> >     Art
>
> Harry G. Lee
> Suite 500
> 1801 Barrs St.
> Jacksonville, FL 32204
> USA
> Voice: 904-384-6419
> Fax: 904-388-6750
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Visit the Jacksonville Shell Club Home Page at:
> www.jaxshells.org
>
> oo .--.     oo .--.      oo .--.
>    \\(____)_ \\(____)_ \\(____)_
>      `~~~~~~ `~~~~~~ `~~~~~~
>
>

PLEASE NOTE: My new, long-term, and correct email address is: [log in to unmask] Please update your records!