anoble's Identifications

Common name: common slipper snail
Location found: attached to rock in tide pool
Habitat types: coastal marshes, tide pools, rocky shorelines
Physical description: usually a series of white shells stacked on top of each other, but they can also be solitary
Fun fact: They all start out as males but the most forward individual transitions to female

Species name: Limulus polyphemus

Common name: Atlantic Horseshoe Crab

Location Found: Crane Beach, Nahant, MA

Physical description: The crab has a rounded carapace with an extended telson. They are typically brown to black in color

Fun Fact: Horseshoe crabs are defined by their book gills and extended telson

Species name: Testudinalia testudinalus

Common name: Common Tortoiseshell Limpet

Location Found: Canoe Beach, Nahant, MA

Physical description: The limpet has one plate-shaped shell with a radiating pattern resembling a tortoiseshell.

Fun Fact: This is the only limpet commonly found in New England. (Source: Andrew J Martinez, "Marine Life of the North Atlantic")

Common Name: Blue Mussel

Location Found: Found in the intertidal zone off of Cunner's Ledge on Nahant, MA. It was found attached to hard substrate amongst many other individuals of this species.

Habitat: The blue mussel is found all the way from the Arctic to South Carolina and is usually attached to hard substrate, rocky shores or pier structures. They have been found up to 300+ feet.

Physical Description: It has an elongated shell that is narrow on one end. It has a hard shell and is usually attached to substrate by extremely strong byssal threads that are an insoluble protein. Often grows in groups and ranges in color from dark blue to black.

Fun Fact: The blue mussel is one of the most popular, commercially fished mussels in the world and is incredibly popular in the New England area.

Reference: Martinez, "Marine Life of the North Atlantic"

Atlantic Dogwinkle/ Atlantic Dogwhelk, found in a tide pool in Nahant MA, found in intertidal rocks, identified by a shell pointed on both ends with 5 whorls and a blunt apex, fun fact: its food source determines the color of the shell. Source: Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew Martinez

Common name: Green Sea Urchin

Location Found: Crack in a tide pool.

Habitat type: Tide pools and algae beds.

Physical description: Green spines, usually about an inch in diameter in March. Black central body.

Fun fact: These are pretty tasty.

Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Martinez

Circular and thin with a five-pointed pattern. Reddish purple and brown. Found in sandy bottomed habitats. Fun fact: you can tell age by counting rings in the exoskeleton. Ref: Marine Life of the North Atlantic - Andrew J. Martinez

Lacy crust of irregular shape attached to various substrates. Found located on a piece of saccharina latissima. Fun fact: bryozoa is one of the major phyla. Ref: Marine Life of the North Atlantic - Andrew J. Martinez, wikipedia.

Common Name: Northern Blood Star

Scientific Name: Henricia sanguinolenta

Location found: Canoe Beach, about 13 feet below the surface.

Habitat type: Can be found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific and the west coast of Scotland. They prefer hard substrate like rocks and boulders in shallow waters and down to depths of below 1000ft.

Physical description:  They can be many colors ranging from deep purple to orange-yellow but are usually bright red. They grow to a maximum of about 10cm across and have five arms that have two rows of tubular feet with no pedicelleria. They are sandpapery in texture.

Fun fact: The larvae don’t go through the free-swimming stage and they are one of the few species of sea stars that brood their young. The parents create a dome that the larvae live in and they can grow in until they are large enough to survive on their own.

Source: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Henricia_sanguinolenta/

Common Name: Red Gilled Nudibranch

Location Found: Off of Canoe Beach, Nahant MA

Habitat Found: Found on seaweeds and rocks from low-tide line to deep water

Physical Description: Red-gilled nudibranchs are characterized by their clustered branchiae (gills) tipped with a white ring.

Fun Fact: Red Gilled Nudibranchs can sequester the nematocysts of their prey to use for defense

Information found in Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew J. Martinez.

Common name: Sea Lace

Location: Canoe Beach, Nahant MA, shoreline

Habitat type: can grow on algae to hard substrate, low tide to shallow water

Physical description: lacy crusts of irregular shapes, rectangular with membraneous frontal wall, spreads several inches over kelp

Fun fact: kind of looks like alligator skin when it grows on kelp

Source used: Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew J. Martinez

Common name: rough barnacle
Location found: tide pool, attached to rocks
Habitat type: intertidal to subtidal zones, attached to rocks or other hard substrate
Physical description: usually conical, found in colonies, whiter in color, an inch or less in height
Fun fact: Its operculum has two valves

Common name: Forbes’s Sea Star
Location found: Canoe Beach, Nahant, MA
Habitat type: Found in intertidal or on rocky, sandy, or gravelly ocean bottom.
Physical description: Color ranges from white to deep purplish red. Rough body where you can see spikes along surface with 5 arms and has characteristic yellow madeporite.
Fun fact: When reproducing, this species will stand on its appendages to release eggs into the water column.
Source: Marine Life of the North Atlantic: Canada to Cape May, Andrew J. Martinez