parmalee_l's Identifications

Found in the rocky intertidal in mid March.

Common name: Common tortoiseshell limpet

Location: tide pool stuck on a rock

Habitat type: Rocky shores from intertidal to subtidal

Physical description: Small, oval, cone shell which is hat like with an apex that is central. Typical dark brown patch near the center of the apex.

Fun fact: It is a herbivore!

Marine Life of the North Atlantic - Martinez

Common Name: Smooth Periwinkle

Location Found: In a tidepool on top of some rockweed

Habitat Types: Smooth periwinkles are usually found on the lower part of the shore on fucus algae

Physical Description: Has a shell with a flattened spire and can range in color from bright yellow to a tan-brown. Smooth periwinkles are small, usually only up to 1.5 centimeters.

Fun Fact: In sheltered areas, these snails are usually lighter and uniform in color (yellow to olive green) and when they are in exposed areas, they are darker and checkered in color.

Reference: The Wildlife Trusts - https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/marine/sea-snails-and-sea-slugs/flat-periwinkle

Common Name: Kelp Lace Bryozoan

Location Found: on Canoe Beach, Nahant on some seaweed washed up onshore during high tide

Habitat Type: Attached to substrate, especially kelp blades

Physical Description: A colony of many individual zooids that live in a compartment made of calcium carbonate and chitin. A single bryozoan is typically 1/32 of an inch and has a crust that is rectangular in shape with a clear-to-white color.

Fun Fact: Bryozoans have a feeding structure called a lophophore, which is used for filter feeding.

Reference: Monetary Bay Aquarium - https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/invertebrates/bryozoan

Common name: Atlantic Jacknife

Location Found: Foreshore of Crane Beach

Habitat type: Sand flats.

Physical description: Long, slender shells, usually dark with red stripes or purple tips.

Fun fact: You can't actually shave with these.

Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Martinez

Common name: violet tunicate
Location found: Dive Beach; Nahant, MA shoreline
Habitat types: invasive, usually colonial, usually attached to rocks
Physical description: can be white, yellow, reddish orange, dense colonies of zooids
Fun Fact: A small piece can regenerate if settled

Common Name: Tortoiseshell Limpet
Location Found: tide pool on Pump House Beach
Habitat Types: rocky shores, intertidally to subtidally, Arctic to Long Island
Physical: small oval, hat like, outside shell can be chekcered brown black
Fun Fact: only common limpet found New England Atlantic coast
Source: Martinez guide

Common Name: Green Sea Urchin
Location Found: Pump House Beach
Habitat Types: rocky bottoms, tide pools, kelp beds up to 1254 m deep. Arctic to NJ
Physical: spines no more than 1/3 the width of the test. No spines on the anus. Color: greenish brown, spines =green, brown tune feet
Fun Fact: we haven’t been seeing them in Nahant recently, but our class has seen a few! On the come back maybe?
Source: Martinez guide

Common name: Common Periwinkle

Location: Tidepool found on rocks and seaweed

Habitat type: Rocky Intertidal. Seen on ascophyllum nodosum and Fucus.

Physical description: thick, smooth, and small. Whitish columella continue along inner edge of shell's outer tip. apex is blunt. Dark gray to chocolate brown.

Fun Fact: It releases the fertilized eggs into the water column.

Marine LIfe of the North Atlantic by Martinez

Common Name: Common Slipper Shell

Scientific Name: Crepidula fornicata

Location found: Rocky intertidal region of Cunner’s Ledge in Nahant, MA.

Habitat type: Crepidula fornicata is native to the Atlantic Coast of North America, but has spread to the Atlantic Coast of Europe, including the United Kingdom and North Sea regions. Individuals are found in many environments, but are most commonly found in wave-protected areas. They may settle on hard substrate or muddy bottoms.

Physical description: Smooth ovoid shell with highly reduced spire; shell is white, cream, or pink with irregular reddish-brown spots; aperture of the shell is large, with septum covering almost half

Fun fact: Slipper shells are protandrous hermaphrodites, meaning that individuals usually start as males and become female. They may form stacks, in which the large individuals on the bottom of the stack are female and the small individuals on top are male.

Common name: Common Slipper Snail

Location: Pump House Beach, Nahant MA, rocky intertidal

Habitat type: Inter tidally on hard substrate

Physical description: conveyed shell with coiled apex turned down on one side, white with brown marking usually (1 1/2'')

Fun fact: shape of shell can be determined by what they settle on (if they settle on another shell, they may be flatter

Source used: Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew J. Martinez

Common name: Common Periwinkle

Location: Canoe Beach, Nahant MA, rocky intertidal, alive

Habitat type: inter tidally on algae (ascophyllum nodosum and fucus)

Physical description: which, smooth, small snail in littoral zone, dark gray to dark brown, about 1''

Fun fact: originally from Europe but now is so abundant on the North Atlantic Shore

Source used: Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew J. Martinez

Common name: Blue mussel

Location: Canoe Beach, Nahant MA, rocky intertidal, attached to rock, alive

Habitat type: solid substrate, rocky shores, and wharf pilings, intertidally to several hundred feet

Physical description: elongated and narrow ended, usually attached to rocks, small (4''), and ranges from dark blue to purple.

Fun fact: can sometimes have a yellow/orange tint to them

Source used: Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew J. Martinez

Common name: Common Sand Dollar

Location: Ipswich, MA (Castle Neck), on shore

Habitat type: sandy bottoms (low tide line to 1 mile out)

Physical description: flat and circular with very thin test, five-point pattern, mouth on ventral side, color ranges from reddish purple to brownish

Fun fact: purplish color is very soluble and stains

Source used: Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew J. Martinez

Common Name: Common Slipper Snail, Boat Shell
Location Found: Pump House Beach, intertidal
Habitat Types: intertidally up to 12 m on hard substrate. Where there is high levels of plankton
Physical: convexed with a coiled apex turned down to one side - shape is determined by object it attaches to some are flatter than others. Color-white with brown markings
Fun Fact: often found on the carapace of horseshoe crabs. Bottom shell in a stack is female and the top is male that fertilizes the female!
Source: Martinez guide