Brief Summary
Turbo perspeciosus are a large, attractive, brightly coloured Turban Snail that can be easiliy identified by their heavily calcified operculum, and less obviously by their unqiue radula design. They are limited in distribution to the Indo-West Pacific ocean, and are commonly found on the reef crests in intertidal zones. They occupy the crevices on the underside of dead coral plates, where they not only co-exist with thousands of invertebrate species, but also camouflage surprisingly well into this brightly coloured micro-habitat.
They are a dioecous, broadcast spawning species, and larval development and growth occurs over a very short period of time. Their fossil history and evolutionary past is surprisingly well documented, and has been rigorously tested through a number of morphological and molecular biological studies.
Numerous morphological studies of this class have been performed to help better understand their unusual internal and external anatomy. It was the unique muscular foot feature of Gastropods that provided inspiration for a recent study conducted on Heron Island during The University of Queensland Marine Invertebrates Field Trip 2011. This study is discussed here on this webpage, however in summary, it aimed to assess the effect of foot size on the attachment strength of T. perspecious.
There are a few potential threats to the survival of this beautiful species in the future, however these are relatively understudied to date. Much thought and consideration should be given to this species when considering management options and conservation plans of the IWP. |