David Kirsh wrote:

>I wonder if keyhole limpets fare better than non-keyhole limpets. What do
> you think? --David

David,

If you mean that you wonder if keyhole limpets fare better at getting
rid of unwanted heat, I think maybe they would, but that it's moot
because they lose moisture through the slit so the advantage of an
easier cooldown is canceled out, making them unfitted to live in the
higher zones. Alan Solem in The Shell Makers: Introducing Mollusks
(1974) says that when a patellid or acmaeid limpet is clamped down
tightly on its "home base" which it has excavated from the rocky spot it
calls home, "virtually no water will be lost."  "These limpets...lack
any slit of puncture in the shell and can live far higher in the tidal
zone." and  " 'True limpets' [patellids and, lottiids and acmaeids] are
among the hardiest inhabitants of the shore zone...." Fissurellids
inhabit the lower intertidal zones down to 4000 meters.

Lynn Scheu
Louisville, KY
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