Many chiton species are found in the intertidal zone, in shaded depressions or crevices or under rocks on open coast, where they are active at night or at high tide, but they also occur to depths of 1000 m or more.
What does a chiton eat?
Most chitons feed by rasping algae and other encrusted food off of the rocks on which they crawl. One genus is predatory, trapping small invertebrates under the fringe of the mantle, and then eating the captured prey. In some chitons, the radula has teeth tipped with magnetite, which hardens them.
What habitat are most chitons found in?
All chitons are marine and the group has a worldwide distribution. Most live in the rocky intertidal zone or shallow sublittoral (just below the low tide level), but some live in deep water to more than 7000 m.
How long does a chiton live?
They have a very muscular foot, and when disturbed, can clamp down so that they cannot be dislodged unless their shell is smashed. Chitons can live for one to twenty years, or more.
How can you tell a chiton?
A small oval shell found attached to rocks on the shore. There are around a dozen species of Chiton on UK shores, most are greyish or brown with mottled markings that make them rather hard to spot. They all have 8 interlocking plates surrounded by a muscular girdle.
Do chitons have eyes?
Chitons are protected by a shell consisting of eight plates. The plates are dotted with hundreds of small eyes called ocelli. Each one contains a layer of pigment, a retina and a lens.
How big do chitons get?
About 5 cm (2 inches) is the maximum length of most chitons, but Cryptochiton stelleri, of the Pacific coast of North America, may grow to about 43 cm. Chitons are very flexible and can fit snugly into rock crevices or curl into a ball when detached.
Do chitons have teeth?
Chitons have several dozen rows of teeth attached to a ribbon-like structure. Each tooth is composed of a mineralized cusp, or pointed area, and base supporting the mineralized cusp. Magnetite is deposited only in the cusp region.
Do chitons have a complete gut?
Adults develop radular mouth parts (recurved chitinous teeth stretched over a supportive base). The radula serves as a scraping apparatus. Have a complete gut. Gas Exchange: Mantle cavity forms a groove extending along the body margin, encircling the foot.
What is the importance of chiton?
Even though chitons are important for their role as primary consumers of marine plants, many chitons feed predominantly on animals, for example, grazing on encrusting colonial animals in the low intertidal or on sponges or foraminifera in the deep sea or associated with deep sunken wood or even deep-sea hydrothermal …
What is the common name of chiton?
Chiton glaucus, common name the green chiton or the blue green chiton, is a species of chiton, a marine polyplacophoran mollusk in the family Chitonidae, the typical chitons.
Do people still wear chitons?
Unfortunately, there are no surviving chitons from ancient Greece, but artwork produced at the time allows us to have an understanding of the garments and its function. The chiton was a draped garment, as many Greek garments were.
Who wore a chiton?
Chiton, Greek Chitōn, garment worn by Greek men and women from the Archaic period (c. 750–c. 500 bc) through the Hellenistic period (323–30 bc).
What is chiton made of?
Chiton is a type of sewn clothing worn by ancient Greeks from 750-30 BC. It was generally made from single rectangle of woolen or linen fabric. At the waist chiton was kept in place by a belt.
What is the largest chiton?
The gumboot chiton is the largest chiton in the world. It can live 20 years or more. When exposed to air during low tide, the gumboot can breathe oxygen from the atmosphere as long as its gills stay moist.
Can chitons live in freshwater?
It is worth pointing out that chitons as a molluscan class are exclusively and fully marine. This is in contrast to the bivalves which were able to adapt to brackish water as well as freshwater, and the gastropods which were able to make successful transitions to freshwater and terrestrial environments.
Why do chitons have eyes?
The West Indian fuzzy chiton has evolved a rather novel way to detect predators, with hundreds of tiny eyes across their shells. Each eye has a lens made of calcium carbonate crystals that focuses light onto light-sensitive cells. Together, the eyes create a visual system that allows the animals to detect predators.
Can you eat a chiton?
Giant Pacific chitons, also known as gumboot chitons, were commonly eaten by the Tlingit and people at Port Simpson (Tsimshian) and were an important food source for the Tlingit and Southeast Alaskan cultures . … Giant Pacific chitons were eaten raw, cooked on a hot surface or boiled .
How many eyes do chiton have?
And chitons have up to 1,000 eyes and can grow more throughout their lifetimes, replacing any that are damaged.
How many types of chiton are there?
There are two forms of chiton. One is the Doric chiton and the later Ionic chiton. According to Herodotus, popular legend was that Athenian women began to wear the chiton as opposed to the peplos after several women stabbed a messenger to death with the bronze pins characteristic of that garment.
How do Chitons breathe?
Because the chiton mantle is stiff and surrounds the body, it is referred to as a girdle. … Inside the groove are gills that help the chiton to breathe underwater. Oxygen-carrying water enters the grooves near the head, flows through the gills, and exits at the rear of the body.