Chitons
size:
some species 4 centimeters, Lepidochitona cinerea maximum 2.5 centimeters
color:
some species grey, others colorful
food:
algea, bryozoans
reproduction:
sexually
- Dut: asgrauwe keverslak
- Lat: Lepidochiton cinereus
- Eng: chiton
- Ger: Rändel-Käferschnecke
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- Lepidochitona cinerea, Foto Fitis, www.fotofitis.nl
Chitons
The chitons belongs to a very old animal group, which existed as far back as the Cambrian (around 500 million years ago), and has hardly changed in all those years. It is a slow animal with a raspy tongue. It has eight overlying calcareous plates as shell, resembling pillbugs. should you manage to break one off the hard underground, it will roll into a ball, just like pillbugs. They use their tongue to scrap off algae and sometimes even small animals such as bryozoans from other shells.
- Distribution and habitat
- Chiton on Porpoise bone, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
There is only one species commonly found in the Netherlands, the Lepidochitona cinerea. This animal is quite common where lots of shells lie on the flats and in the delta region.
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