Lottia limatula

Lottia limatula, the file limpet, is a species of true limpet, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Lottiidae. This species lives in the Pacific coasts of North America where they can be found most concentrated around the state of California, spreading south to Baja California Sur and north to Alaska as well. These limpets inhabit intertidal zones along coastlines and can be found grazing on encrusting algaes during high tide or in a sessile state sealing themselves to rock when exposed out of water. Predation from other intertidal animals in this environment include shore crabs such as the striped shore crab or sea stars such as the ochre sea star. This species is also known to avoid sea stars that are nearby their presence. This species typically reproduces in winter months with broadcast spawning between males and females. Female eggs are olive-green and coloration. Spawning months occur and peak during January, February, April, and October.

Lottia limatula

H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
file limpetPBDB
Sits inside
LottiaPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Lottiidae
Life habit
epifaunalPBDB, for Lottiidae
Motility
facultatively mobile, attachedPBDB, for Lottiidae
Vision
limitedPBDB, for Gastropoda

Time the record covers

At least 645 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 59 occurrencesPleistocene — about 59 of 59 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 59 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 23 occurrences774 ka129 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

59 occurrences of Lottia limatula on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

59 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

6 formations

Unnamed — 33.24°N, 119.51°WUnnamed — 33.24°N, 119.55°WDiscovery Point — 29.00°N, 118.27°WDiscovery Point — 29.00°N, 118.23°WDiscovery Point — 29.10°N, 118.25°WQuaternary terrace — 33.75°N, 118.33°WQuaternary terrace — 33.76°N, 118.35°WLomita Marl — 33.75°N, 118.30°WLomita Marl — 33.74°N, 118.29°WSan Pedro Sand — 33.74°N, 118.28°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.88°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Lottia limatula has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Lottia limatula and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Lottia limatula and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

829 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 47 sites for Lottia limatula, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

15 references

Each of the 59 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 3 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Lottia limatula

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Lottia limatula was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itLottia through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Carpenter 1864)