(Pennant, 1777)

Description (shell):
Elongate oval, about two and a half times long as broad. Shell valves strongly arched, with a moderate rounded keel and pronounced beaks. Sculpture of longitudinal ridges on the keel, laterally with large, flat-topped, pyriform granules, varying in size and unevenly spaced. Girdle with 18 dense tufts of bristles (up to 1 mm long), one situated on each side, close to the junction between each pair of plates and four in an arc anterior to the head valve; surface with fine, irregular granules interspersed with recumbent spines, fringed with dense series of long (up to 0.5 mm) acicular spines (A. crinita-drawing).

Size:
Up to 34 mm long.

Colour:
Very variable: off-white, grey, yellowish, chestnut, green, olive, brown and shades of blue; in patches and streaks, or marbled; rarely unicolorous.

Habitat:
Lower shore and sublittoral.

Distribution:
Common in the North Sea (Distr. A. crinita).

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Mollusca
Class Polyplacophora
Order Lepidopleurida
Family Acanthochitonidae
Genus Acanthochitona
Species Acanthochitona crinita

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Acanthochitona crinita (Pennant, 1777)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Chiton crinitus Pennant, 1777
Chiton onyx Spengler, 1797
Chiton fascicularis var. minor Philippi, 1836
Acanthochaetes vulgaris Leach, 1852
Chiton fascicularis var. attenuata Jeffreys, 1865
Acanthochites adansoni Rochebrune, 1881
Acanthochites bouvieri Rochebrune, 1881
Anisochiton fascicularis var. violacea Pallary, 1902
Acanthochites fascicularis var. fusca Dautzenberg & Durouchoux, 1906
Acanthochites fascicularis var. lutescens Dautzenberg & Durouchoux, 1906
Acanthochites fascicularis var. cinnabrina Dautzenberg & Durouchoux, 1906
Acanthochiton oblongus Leloup, 1981
Chiton fascicularis sensu Brown, 1827 non Linné, 1767
Acanthochitona crinitus

Hayward, P.J., Wigham, G.D. & N. Yonow, 1990. Mollusca I: Polyplacophora, Scaphopoda, and Gastropoda. In: The Marine Fauna of the British Isles and North-West Europe. (ed. P.J. Hayward & J.S. Ryland). Clarendon Press, Oxford: 628-730.

Jones, A.M. & J.M. Baxter, 1987. Molluscs: Caudofoveata, Solenogastres, Polyplacophora and Scaphopoda. Synopses of the British fauna (NS), 37: 1-123.

Poppe, G.T. & Y. Goto, 1991. European Seashells. Vol. I. 352 pp. Wiesbaden/Verlag Christa Hemmen.

Seaward, D.R., 1990. Distribution of the marine molluscs of north west Europe. Nature Conservancy Council.

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