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Date: | Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:10:45 +1300 |
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>"Extreme deep-sea" mollusks have shells consisting mostly of
>protein; calcium carbonate crystals may or not be there, but I was
>surprised to poke at those brownish limpet shells only to find that
>they were sometimes very flexible. ("Extreme deep-sea" in this case
>means depths at the lower limit or well below the abyssal plains,
>i.e., below 12,000-15,000 feet. This includes the hadal fauna, or
>animals living in submarine trenches, as Fabio mentioned earlier.)
These molluscs are living below the carbonate compensation depth.
I have a specimen of Vesicomya from 8000m in the Kuril Trench. It is
shelly but has a substantial periostracum.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
‚ Opinions stated are mine, not those of Otago University
"There is water at the bottom of the ocean" - Talking Heads
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