Turbo undulatus are endemic to temperate Australia. These herbivorous animals live in intertidal and shallow, sub-tidal waters on coral and rocky reefs amongst seaweed (Short and Potter, 1987).
External morphology
The family turbinidae (turnban shells) have of medium to large, solid turbinate shells often with spiral cords, radial ribs or scales; nacreous interior and smooth columella; solid, calcerous, often colourful operculum (Short and Potter, 1987).
General features
Turbo undulatus have a secondarily asymmetrical symmetry, are unsegmented and are coelomate protostomes (Brusca and Brusca, 2003). Their coelom is restricted to small spaces around the nephridia (a pair of invertebrate organs with same functions as the vertebrate kidney), heart and part of the intestine (Brusca and Brusca, 2003). The main body cavity of Turbo undulatus is a hemocoel, an open circulatory system through which blood circulates. The mass of internal organs known as viscera, is concentrated dorsally and the entire bunch of anterior organs are known as "visceral mass". Their body is covered by a thick epidermal-cuticular sheet of skin, the mantle, which forms a cavity (the mantle cavity). The ctenidia (a respiratory organ consisting of axial row of projecting filaments), osphradia (an olfactory organ linked to the ctenidia), nephridopores (pores of the nephridia), gonophores and anus are housed within the mantle cavity (Brusca and Brusca, 2003). The mantle functions to produce the shell. It achieves this by secreting calcareous epidermal spicules, shell plates or shells through shell glands. The heart of Turbo undulatus resides in the pericardial chamber and contains separate ventricle and atria. A prominent characteristic of turbo undulatus is their large, well defined fleshy, muscular foot (used for locomotion over various stubstrate) with a flattened creeping sole (Brusca and Brusca, 2003). Their buccal region also contains a radula (a toothed chitinous structure used for scrapping and cutting algae from rocks). They also have a regionalized complete gut (two openings, 1 mouth and 1 anus) which includes a large digestive ceca. The molluscs also contain large complex metanephridia.
Internal anatomy of Turbo undulatus, adapted from Richard, C. B. and Gary, J. B. (2003) Invertebrates California: Sinauer Associates
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