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Home Q & A Board Biology-Related Homework Help Zoology and Botany (Moderator: ehd123)
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Robio Robio
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5 years ago
Hi,
I'm traveling through New Zealand and found a little schell/amor on the beach on the east-coast of New Zealands northern island. It's around  3cm long. At first I thought it would be a creb shell but if you look closely you can see some skin left on the edge wich looks scaly like skin from reptiles. So I thought it can't be a shellfish.
I hope someone can help me finding out what kind of animal this shell belongs to!

Thanks in advance,
Robin
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#1
Educator
5 years ago
Reminds me of this



Morphological differences in shell characteristics and head colouration patterns of Malayemys khoratensis (orange), Malayemys macrocephala (blue), Malayemys subtrijuga (green).
Source  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153108.g007
Robio Author
wrote...
#2
5 years ago
Quote from: bio_man (5 years ago)
Reminds me of this Morphological differences in shell characteristics and head colouration patterns of Malayemys khoratensis (orange), Malayemys macrocephala (blue), Malayemys subtrijuga (green).

Thank you for the answer! but the shell i found looks very different from that. it has multiple segments, not like tortoise usually have. (as far as I know) it's also a little bit movable.
wrote...
#3
Staff Member
5 years ago
What's interesting is that it looks like scales on the side of the specimen. Does the hard part feel kertinized like a turtle's shell or chalky like a crustaceans shell? I'm doubting it's a turtle's shell because there's no evidence of a spine or ribs from the inside view (shown below)
- Master of Science in Biology
- Bachelor of Science
Robio Author
wrote...
#4
5 years ago
Quote from: duddy (5 years ago)
What's interesting is that it looks like scales on the side of the specimen. Does the hard part feel kertinized like a turtle's shell or chalky like a crustaceans shell? I'm doubting it's a turtle's shell because there's no evidence of a spine or ribs from the inside view (shown below)

Thanks for the answer! I would say it's more like keratinized and it's pretty solid. I can't imagine it's from a crustaceans because of the scaly skin. Maybe the spine isn't that distinctive because it came from a very young animal? Also by looking pictures of turtle's skeleton on google I saw some with less visable spine...
But I never saw a turtle with such a shell!
Robio Author
wrote...
#5
5 years ago
Solved!!
someone in a different forum answerd me:
It's a Chiton!
Very interesting animals!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiton?wprov=sfla1
wrote...
#6
Educator
5 years ago
Good call, the mystery is over

https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2005/07/chitons-on-bermuda.html

Thanks for the update
Answer rejected by topic starter
Robio Author
wrote...
#7
5 years ago
The "scall" are no scall, it's hundreds of eyes!!
wrote...
#8
Educator
5 years ago
Are you certain they have the ability to "see"? They're so primitive looking, and the source I linked above says they're from the cambrian, 500 million years ago!
Robio Author
wrote...
#9
5 years ago Edited: 5 years ago, Robio
Quote from: bio_man (5 years ago)
Are you certain they have the ability to "see"? They're so primitive looking, and the source I linked above says they're from the cambrian, 500 million years ago!

I read on Wikipedia that they have ocelli, wich are photoreceptor cells beneath an argonit-based lense, but because they have hundrets of them they are able to see at least good enough to differentiate between a predators shadow and other changes in light like clouds.
Source  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiton?wprov=sfla1
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