We investigated the relative roles of natural factors and shoreline harvest leading to recent declines of the black leather chiton (Katharina tunicata) on the outer Kenai Peninsula, Alaska (U.S.A.). This intertidal mollusk is a strongly interacting grazer and a culturally important subsistence fishery for Sugpiaq (Chugach Alutiiq) natives. We took multiple approaches to determine causes of decl...

Magnetite is both a common inorganic rock-forming mineral and a biogenic product formed by a diversity of organisms. Magnetotactic bacteria produce intracellular magnetites of high purity and crystallinity (magnetosomes) arranged in linear chains of crystals. Magnetosomes and their fossils (magnetofossils) have been identified using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in sediments dating bac...

This study presents the first ever data of extracting chitin from the Chiton shell, which then converted to the soluble chitosan by soaking in the 45% NaOH solution. The obtained chitin and chitosan were characterized by the seven different methods. Antioxidant activity of the extracted chitosan was also evaluated using the two methods. The shell content was divided into calcium carbonate (90.5...

The aesthete canals of fourteen chiton species were cast with epoxy, allowing detailed examination and comparison of the entire canal system that infiltrates their valves (shell plates). Some species in this study have been classified without question in the family Mopaliidae (Mopalia ciliata (Sowerby, 1840), Mopalia lignosa (Gould, 1846), Mopalia spectabilis Cowan and Cowan, 1977, Mopalia swan...

The complete sequence (14,130 bp) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the land snail Albinaria coerulea was determined. It contains 13 protein, two rRNA and 22 tRNA genes. Twenty-four of these genes are encoded by one and 13 genes by the other strand. The gene arrangement shares almost no similarities with that of two other molluscs for which the complete gene content and arrangement are known,...