Bathymodiolus childressi

Bathymodiolus childressi is a species of deepwater mussel, a marine bivalve mollusk species in the family Mytilidae, the mussels.

Bathymodiolus childressi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Mytilida
Family: Mytilidae
Genus: Bathymodiolus
Species:
B. childressi
Binomial name
Bathymodiolus childressi
Gustafson, Turner, Lutz, & Vrijenhoek, 1998[1]

Although this species has been known since 1985,[2] it was formally described as a species in 1998.[1]

Habitat

This species lives in cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico.[3]

Bathymodiolus childressi is stenothermal species living in temperatures ranging from 6.5 to 7.2 °C.[4] However it was able to survive the temperature of 20 °C in the laboratory.[4]

Symbiosis

This mussel harbors intracellular methanotrophic bacteria in its gills.[2] The bacteria provide carbon to the mussel.

Interspecific relationships

The snail Bathynerita naticoidea can detect beds of the mussel Bathymodiolus childressi. It is attracted to water that has been altered by this species of mussel,[3] but the nature of the attractant was not discovered yet.[3] This snail also feeds on periphyton of methanotrophic bacteria that grow on the shells of Bathymodiolus childressi,[3] living on the decomposing periostracum of the mussels[3] and on byssal fibres of those mussels.[3]

Etymology

This species was named after James J. Childress, a marine biologist who investigated the physiology of this mussel at the University of California, Santa Barbara.[5]

References
  1. Gustafson R. G., Turner R. D., Lutz R. A. & Vrijenhoek R. C. (1998). "A new genus and five new species of mussels (Bivalvia, Mytilidae) from deep-sea sulfide/hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf of Mexico". Malacologia 40(1-2): 63-112. page 84.
  2. Childress J.J., Fisher C.R., Brooks J.M., Kennicutt M.C., II, Bidigare R. & Anderson A. (1986) A methanotrophic marine molluscan symbiosis: mussels fueled by gas. Science, 233, 1306-1308.
  3. Dattagupta S., Martin J., Liao S., Carney R. S. & Fisher C. R. (2007). "Deep-sea hydrocarbon seep gastropod Bathynerita naticoidea responds to cues from the habitat-providing mussel Bathymodiolus childressi". Marine Ecology 28(1): 193-198. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0485.2006.00130.x
  4. Berger M. S. & Young C. M. (2006). "Physiological response of the cold-seep mussel Bathymodiolus childressi to acutely elevated temperature". Marine Biology 149(6): 1397-1402. doi:10.1007/s00227-006-0310-8
  5. "Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
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