Oliva incrassata | |
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Five views of a shell of Oliva incrassata | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
(unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda |
Superfamily: | Olivoidea |
Family: | Olividae |
Genus: | Oliva |
Species: | O. incrassata |
Binomial name | |
Oliva incrassata (Lightfoot in Solander, 1786) |
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Synonyms | |
Oliva burchorum Zeigler, 1969 |
Oliva burchorum Zeigler, 1969
Oliva nivea Pilsbry, 1910
Oliva incrassata, the Angled Olive or Giant Olive, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Olividae, the olives.
This species is widespread from California to Peru.
These sea snails live at the low-tide level, at the outer side of sandspits.
Shells of Oliva incrassata can reach a length of 32–95 millimetres (1.3–3.7 in). These relatively large shells are almost cylindrical, very thick, ovate, angularly swollen in the middle, with a rather short spire, a narrow and long aperture and usually with uniformly colored body whorls, except in the colummellar area. The basic color background may vary from ash-white or greyish to light yellow and brown, mottled with gray and olive, with angled transverse dark chestnut streaks and a fleshy rosy pink columellar area.
The Giant Olives are active predators. At night they search for food, while during the day they bury themselves beneath the sand and mud.