Common name: Threeline Mudsnail
Location found: This mudsnail was found in the intertidal zone of Long Beach, Nahant, MA.
Habitat types: Threeline mudsnails are found intertidally from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida on sandy or muddy bottoms.
Physical description: This mudsnail was identified by the ridges on and long nature of its shell. It was fairly small, about 2 cm in from the tip of the shell to the foot.
Fun fact: Threeline mudsnails have really high reproductive capabilities and, as a result, can make up about 95% of the total macroinvertrate composition of an ecosystem. (https://www.fws.gov/columbiariver/ANS/factsheets/mudsnail.pdf)

Location found: Short Beach on the ocean side of the Nahant causeway. It was close to the waves edge, on wet soft sand with many other small or crushed shells.

Typical habitat: Western North Atlantic, intertidal areas, or on sandy bottoms as deep as 20m.

Characteristics: Very small, cone shaped spiral shell with tiny ridges running perpendicular to the spiraled sections. Can rang in color from light pinks to dark browns.

Fun fact: Studies show that the larvae of this snail may be able to hear and react to wave movement in their trochophore state, allowing them to dictate which direction to drift. For example, away from the continental shelf which would be deeper water.

http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/32/E7532.full.pdf

26 Marine Invertebrate

Scientific Name: Tritia trivittata

Common Name: Threeline Mudsnail

Location Found: washed up on shore of Long Beach, Nahant, MA

Habitat Types: sandy/muddy substrate; intertidal to subtidal (Martinez, A. J. (1994). Marine Life of the North Atlantic Canada to Cape May. Locust Valley, NY: Aqua Quest)

Physical Description: elongated shell with high conical spire; many bumps on shell; 6-7 whorls (Martinez, A. J. (1994). Marine Life of the North Atlantic Canada to Cape May. Locust Valley, NY: Aqua Quest)

Fun Fact: it's in the same famly as the dog whelk (Marshall, B.; Bouchet, P. (2016). Tritia trivittata (Say, 1822). In: MolluscaBase (2016). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=737284 on 2016-05-18)

The shells of these bivalves are thick and triangular. The surface smoothes off as you get toward the hinge.
Found: In a sandy substrate close to the low tide zone
Fun Fact: Clams can live up to 35 years

Description: This species can be identified by the purple and brown spots on their carapace
Found: Typically in the intertidal zone, sometimes out in the open, retreating to the rocks when approached
Fun Fact: These crabs can be found as deep as 2,600ft

Location Found- Strawberry Hill Salt marsh in Ipswich Ma. Found resting on exposed marsh mud.

Habitat-Brackish waters of up to 12 meters. Like lower salinity than most marine inverts

Physical Description- Shape is variable depending on growing medium. Color can range from bright white to light yellow.

Fun Fact- State mollusk of Connecticut!

Source: 'Marine Life of the North Atlantic' - Andrew J. Martinez 2010

Common Name: Ribbed Mussel

Found in Ipswich, MA in the Great Marsh area. Found at the edge of the Marsh in the intertidal. Found amongst seagrasses and buried in the mud.

Habitat: Generally found in salt marshes and brackish water intertidally. Found from St. Lawrence to Florida.

Physical Description: Bivalve that differs from other mussels because of radiating ribs on the outside of the shell. Color varies from brownish yellow to brownish black. Size can get up to 4 inches.

Fun Fact: Ribbed mussels close their valves during low tide which keeps in components that are toxic to humans which is why they should only be harvested during high tide.

Source:
Marine Life of the North Atlantic Field Guide App - Martinez

https://www.chesapeakebay.net/S=0/fieldguide/critter/atlantic_ribbed_mussel

Common Names: Atlantic dogwinkle, dog whelk
Location found: Found attached to a rock in the high intertidal. Found alive.
Habitat Types: Typically found in the rocky intertidal. Can be found from Labrador to Rhode Island.
Physical Characteristics: Shell is rough, thick, and pointed at both ends. Apex is blunt. Aperature is oval. Color ranges from white to brown.
Fun Fact: N. lapillus individuals that feed on mussels are brown, and individuals that feed on barnacles are white. This is because the color of its shell is partially dependent on its food source.
Reference: Martinez, Andrew J. "Marine Life of the North Atlantic: Canada to Cape May." Aqua Quest Publications, 2010, pp. 96-97.

Common Name: Blue Mussel

Location: In tide pool near Cunner Ledge, Nahant, MA

Habitat: Found in the Arctic to South Carolina on hard substrate (rocks, pilings) from the intertidal zone to depths of several hundred feet.

Physical Description: Shell is elongated and narrow ended with purple blue to blue black coloration.

Fun fact: Blue Mussels are used in jewelry manufacturing

Source: Martinez, Andrew J. Marine life of the North Atlantic: Canada to New England. Aqua Quest Publications, Inc., 2003.

This surf clam was found on the shoreline in East Boothbay Harbor during a walk looking for birds. This species is wider and shorter than the Quahog Clam. They can get up to 20 cm wide. They are pale white and have concentric horizontal growth rings. They are usually found buried in sandy low intertidal and surf zones from Nova Scotia to South Carolina.

Growth rates heavily depend on the temperature they grow in. southern individuals in warmer water grow slower than individuals in colder water.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atlantic-surfclam

This crab was dead on the beach. The Portly Spider Crab has 9 spines running down its carapace. It attaches bits of algae to its shell. It moves by walking forward instead of sideways. They live all the way from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

Fun fact:
They can tolerate very polluted or oxygen depleted environments.

https://www.acaquarium.com/animals/common-spider-crab-2/

Common name: Threeline Mudsnail
Location found: This mudsnail was found in the intertidal zone of Long Beach, Nahant, MA.
Habitat types: Threeline mudsnails are found intertidally from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida on sandy or muddy bottoms.
Physical description: This mudsnail was identified by the ridges on and long nature of its shell. It was fairly small, about 2 cm in from the tip of the shell to the foot.
Fun fact: Threeline mudsnails have really high reproductive capabilities and, as a result, can make up about 95% of the total macroinvertrate composition of an ecosystem. (https://www.fws.gov/columbiariver/ANS/factsheets/mudsnail.pdf)

Common Name: Atlantic Rock Crab

Location: Carapace found washed ashore on Canoe Beach, Nahant, MA.

Habitat: Typically found on rocky intertidal shores to 2,600 feet deep.

Physical Description: Carapace is reddish in color with nine rounded teeth bordering the front. Can have a length of 3.5 inches and a width of 5 inches.

Fun Fact: This crab is edible.

Martinez, Andrew. Marine Life of the North Atlantic: Canada to Cape May. (New York: Aqua Quest Publications, 2003) 180-181.

Common name is the eastern oyster. Found alive in shallow water in the Eagle Hill River adjacent to a salt marsh in Ipswich. Typically found in brackish water up to 12 meters deep. Has a mildly curved, rough shell that is narrow at the hinge and widens gradually. It is the state mollusk of Connecticut and Virginia (Marine Life of the North Atlantic by Andrew J. Martinez).

This shell of a dog whelk was found on the beach of Plum Island at Sandy Point State Reserve. This species is generally found on rocks inter tidally in crevices from Labrador to Rhode Island. The shell is thick, rough, solid and pointed at both ends. It has five whorls, a short spire and a blunt apex with an oval aperture. The color varies from white to yellow to brown. A fun fact is that their food source partially determines their color. Those that feed on mussels are browner. (Marine Life of the North Atlantic, Andrew J. Martinez)

Location found: Short Beach on the ocean side of the Nahant causeway. It was close to the waves edge, on wet soft sand with many other small or crushed shells.

Typical habitat: Western North Atlantic, intertidal areas, or on sandy bottoms as deep as 20m.

Characteristics: Very small, cone shaped spiral shell with tiny ridges running perpendicular to the spiraled sections. Can rang in color from light pinks to dark browns.

Fun fact: Studies show that the larvae of this snail may be able to hear and react to wave movement in their trochophore state, allowing them to dictate which direction to drift. For example, away from the continental shelf which would be deeper water.

http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/115/32/E7532.full.pdf

Modiolus modiolus, commonly known as the northern horse mussel, is distributed along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. It is typically found growing on hard substrates in the low intertidal zone down to around 50-80 m in depth. This organism was found washed up onshore. It can be distinguished by its triangular and oblong valves, as well as its clear concentric growth lines. It typically grows to 10 cm in length, but can grow up to 22 cm. Its periostracum is known to range in color from brown to black. A fun fact about this species is that it is tolerant of low levels of both oxygen and its prey item (phytoplankton).

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modiolus_modiolus

Common name: Dead Man's Fingers
Species name: Codium fragile
Location found: Canoe Beach, Nahant, MA
Status: Alive, attached onto rocks
Habitats: A siphonous green alga with dark green in color. It appears as a fuzzy patch of tubular fingers, which hang down from rocks during low tide, hence the nickname "dead man's fingers". The "fingers" are branches up to a centimeter wide and sometimes over 30 centimeters long.
Physical description: (It is an invasive species) Cortication covering most of the thallus; beaded appearance observable, but often obscured. They have bushy thallus (up to 40 centimeter tall) and abundant dichotomous branching. Under a microscope, they clearly have pincers at the tip of each branch
Fun fact: There are 3 subspecies within C. fragile: Codium fragile subsp. atlanticum, Codium fragile subsp. tomentosoides, and Codium fragile subsp. scandinavicum. They can only be distinguished microscopically!
Reference(s):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codium_fragile
"Illustrated Key to the Seaweeds of New England" by Martine Villalard-Bohnsack (A Publication of The Rhode Island Natural History Survey, Kingston, RI. Second Edition, 2003)

Common Names: Yellow Periwinkle
Location Found: found in the intertidal zone at low tide on a blade of algae, alive
Habitat Types: intertidal in the brown algal zone, found on Rockweed and Knotted Wrack
Physical Description: brownish yellow or orange yellow, can be green, black, or brown, grows up to 13mm
Fun Fact: This species lays egg masses directly on brown algae.
Source: Source: 'Marine Life of the North Atlantic' - Andrew J. Martinez

The Atlantic ribbed mussel is found in salt marshes and intertidally in brackish waters from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Florida. The defining feature of this mussel is the radiating ribs on the outside of shell, which comes in variable shades of mustard to brownish-black. They can grow up to 4".

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

Fun fact:
These mussels play a vital role in salt marsh as filter feeders.

https://www.edc.uri.edu/restoration/html/gallery/invert/ribbed.htm

Location found: These Common Periwinkles were observed on the mudflats of Hogdon Cove, East Boothbay, ME.

Habitat types: Their range extends from Labrador to the south side of Chesapeake Bay. They are usually seen intertidally on algae, specifically A. nodosum and Fucus species, as well as on algal films that cover rocks.

Physical description: The Common Periwinkle is identified by its smooth, thick shell. A whitish columella is found on the inner edge of the shell's tip. Color is dark grey to brown, size is up to 2.5cm.

Fun fact: The snails are edible natives of Europe.

Martinez, Andrew. Marine Life of the North Atlantic: Canada to Cape May. New York: Aqua Quest Publications, Inc. 1994.

26 Marine Invertebrate

Scientific Name: Tritia trivittata

Common Name: Threeline Mudsnail

Location Found: washed up on shore of Long Beach, Nahant, MA

Habitat Types: sandy/muddy substrate; intertidal to subtidal (Martinez, A. J. (1994). Marine Life of the North Atlantic Canada to Cape May. Locust Valley, NY: Aqua Quest)

Physical Description: elongated shell with high conical spire; many bumps on shell; 6-7 whorls (Martinez, A. J. (1994). Marine Life of the North Atlantic Canada to Cape May. Locust Valley, NY: Aqua Quest)

Fun Fact: it's in the same famly as the dog whelk (Marshall, B.; Bouchet, P. (2016). Tritia trivittata (Say, 1822). In: MolluscaBase (2016). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=737284 on 2016-05-18)

Location found: This Jonah Crab was observed on a large boulder located off Pump House Beach, Nahant, MA at roughly 10ft.

Habitat types: Its range extends from Nova Scotia to Florida. It is found on rocky shores or bottoms, intertidally up to 793m.

Physical description: The Jonah Crab carapace is oval shaped with a finely granular surface. there are three low teeth between the eyes and nine wide teeth with deeply indented margins on either side of the eye sockets. Walking legs are short and hairy with black tips. Carapace color is brick red, ventral surface is yellowish. Max length 10.2cm, max width 15.2cm.

Fun fact: Historically, the Jonah crab was considered a bycatch of the New England lobster fishery, but its popularity has skyrocketed in the last decade, resulting in a quadrupling of its market value.

Martinez, Andrew. Marine Life of the North Atlantic: Canada to Cape May. New York: Aqua Quest Publications, Inc. 1994.