Abstract
Having a noncoiled, limpet-like shell is a characteristic shared by numerous gastropod molluscs, including many lineages outside the true limpets (Patellogastropoda) where it has evolved convergently. The shell shape of limpet-formed gastropods has often been used as a key taxonomic character, and although studies have shown that it can vary depending on the substrate morphology, these have mostly been examples from true limpets. Over a dozen origins of limpet-form are known in Vetigastropoda, and these limpets are still generally assumed to have rather stable shell forms that are useful for taxonomy and species identification. Here, we show that the vetigastropod limpet Lepetodrilus nux (Okutani, Fujikura & Sasaki, 1993) from a deep-sea hot vent in the Okinawa Trough develop distinct shell forms when living on different substrate types. Sequences of the barcoding region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene among the three forms only differed by 0.31–0.63% (K2P distance) in a 637 bp alignment, in line with the differences in shell morphology being intraspecific. The extent of shell form shift seen in this species is likely the largest reported for a vetigastropod limpet and provide further evidence that such plasticity is not phylogenetically constrained but is an intrinsic part of having a limpet-like shell.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like thank the Captain and crews of R/V Kairei, as well as the operation team of the ROV KAIKO, for their untiring support during the research cruise KR16-16 led by Junichi Miyazaki (JAMSTEC). Kyoko Okino (AORI, the University of Tokyo) is gratefully acknowledged for leading the cruises that led to the discovery of the Ghibli site (R/V Yokosuka cruises YK14-16 and YK16-07), and Kentaro Nakamura (the University of Tokyo) for analyzing the MBES data. Yuriko Nakamura (JAMSTEC) and Katsunori Kimoto (JAMSTEC) are thanked for their help with micro-CT scanning. The Ghibli site was named in appreciation of Studio Ghibli for being an immense source of imagination, “Laputa Chimney” and “Howl’s Castle” were named in reference to Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), respectively. David R. Lindberg and one other anonymous reviewer are thanked for their critical comments that improved an earlier version of this paper.
Funding
The research cruise KR16-16 was supported by Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation (CSTI), Japan as the Cross Ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), Next-generation Technology for Ocean Resource Exploration. This study was supported by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid (18K06401) to C.C. and H.K.W.
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The study species is an invertebrate gastropod and no experimental manipulation was undertaken on live animals in this study. All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed by the authors.
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All necessary permits for sampling and observations have been obtained by the author or contributors mentioned in the acknowledgments, where applicable. The study is compliant with CBD and Nagoya protocols.
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New DNA sequences generated were deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MW065564–MW065566. All other data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
Authors’ contributions
C.C. conceived and designed the study. C.C. collected the specimens used and carried out the morphology part of the lab work and analyses. H.K.W. carried out the genetics part of the lab work and analyses. C.C. drafted the manuscript which was critically edited by H.K.W. Both authors gave final approval for submission and publication.
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Chen, C., Watanabe, H.K. Substrate-dependent shell morphology in a deep-sea vetigastropod limpet. Mar. Biodivers. 50, 104 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01135-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01135-y