Alviniconcha hessleri
| Alviniconcha | |
|---|---|
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| Two preserved specimens of Alviniconcha hessleri | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Abyssochrysoidea |
| Family: | Provannidae |
| Genus: |
Alviniconcha Okutani & Ohta, 1988 |
| Type species | |
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Alviniconcha hessleri Okutani & Ohta, 1988 |
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| Species | |
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See text |
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See text
Alviniconcha is a genus of deep water sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Provannidae. These snails are part of the fauna of the hydrothermal vents in the Indian and Western Pacific Ocean. These and another genus and species within the same family (Ifremeria nautilei) are the only known currently existing animals whose nutrition is derived from an endosymbiotic relationship with proteobacteria: a member of bacteria from class Epsilonproteobacteria occurs as an endosymbiont of the gills of Alviniconcha hessleri.
The size of the shell varies between 25 mm and 30 mm. The surface of the shell is studded with hairs on the periostracum, Individuals variation in shell size and the arrangement of the hairs, but the variation does not correspond to individual species.
Until 2014, Alviniconcha consisted solely of the species Alviniconcha hessleri, described in 1988. In 2014, increased recognition of genetic differences between populations resulted in the formal description of five cryptic species within the former A. hessleri that are morphologically indistinguishable from each other but that have consistent differences in sequences.
Species within the genus Alviniconcha include:
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