The genus Neothauma previously contained several species, but most were reassigned to other genera.[7]
Description
The width of the
shell is 46 mm (1.8 in).[6] The height of the shell is 60 mm (2.4 in).[6]
Ecology
This species lives in depths of up to 65 m (213 ft).[6] There is conflicting information relating to its feeding behavior, with one study referring to it as a
detritus-feeder,[8] another saying that it actively preys on
endobenthic organisms,[9] and finally that it feeds on particulate organic filtered while the snail is buried.[10]
The shells of dead Neothauma tanganyicense often form carpets over large areas, and are used by a number of other animals, such as
cichlid fish (
shell dwellers),[11] and
freshwater crabs of the genus Platythelphusa.[12] Juvenile snails live in the sediment in order to avoid predators.[6]
References
^Smith E. A. (1880). "On the shells of Lake Tanganyika and of the neighbourhood of Ujiji, central Africa". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London1880:
344-352.
Page 349.
Plate 31.
^Mita E. Sengupta; Thomas K. Kristensen; Henry Madsen & Aslak Jørgensen (2009). "Molecular phylogenetic investigations of the Viviparidae (Gastropoda: Caenogastropoda) in the lakes of the Rift Valley area of Africa". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 52 (3): 797–805.
doi:
10.1016/j.ympev.2009.05.007.
PMID19435609.
^Palacios-Fest, M.R.; S.R. Alin; A.S. Cohen; B. Tanner; H. Heuser (2005). "Paleolimnological investigations of anthropogenic environmental change in Lake Tanganyika: IV. Lacustrine paleoecology". Journal of Paleolimnology. 34: 51–71.
CiteSeerX10.1.1.489.2218.
doi:
10.1007/s10933-005-2397-1.
^Van Damme, D.; Pickford, M. (1998). "The late Cenozoic Viviparidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda) of the Albertine Rift Valley". Hydrobiologia. 390 (1): 171–217.
doi:
10.1023/A:1003518218109.
^N. Cumberlidge; R. von Sternberg; I. R. Bills & H. Martin (1999). "A revision of the genus Platythelphusa A. Milne-Edwards, 1887 from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa (Decapoda: Potamoidea: Platythelphusidae)". Journal of Natural History. 33 (10): 1487–1512.
CiteSeerX10.1.1.654.5532.
doi:
10.1080/002229399299860.