#cellana

Another of the places we visited for the geology, or rather the paleontology, while we were visiting the Catlins.

Curio Bay (and some 20 kilometers of the coastline here) is the site of an 180 million-year-old petrified forest, once populated by trees closely related to the living Kauri (Agathis sp.) and Norfolk Pine (Araucaria heterophylla). The forests were buried in volcanic mudslides and debris at least four times, regrowing in the millennia inbetween, and the stumps and fallen trees have been beautifully preserved on the intertidal platform.

The intertidal platform had a delightful range of species as well. Such as this mussel living inside the hollow petrified stump of a Jurassic tree.

The area is also home to the largest surviving population of yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) but alas we missed seeing them coming ashore in the evening, despite heading to the viewing platform at dusk.

On the other side of the road a forest featuring as many plants as might have been found in the Petrified Forest when it was alive has been planted. At least these days it's unlikely to be buried in volcanic mud, unless something has gone extremely wrong.

A Nacellid limpet endemic to New Zealand. That's about my limit on the limpet.

AKA Patella luctuosa, margaritaria, nodosa and ornata.

A second limpet from around the base of Paritutu Rock, a 156 meter tall volcanic plug on the coast at New Plymouth.

Like the previous, an Aotearoan endemic. The peak of this one's shell has been worn away, but that's not unusual in older intertidal limpets.

AKA Cellana radians perana, Helcioniscus radians, Nacella flexuosa, and Patella antipodum, argentea, argyropsis, decora, earlii, flexuosa, morio, olivacea, pholidota, radians & radiatilis.

A true limpet endemic to New Zealand's rocky coastlines, but quite variable in form - hence all the synonyms above.

Like other limpets, a marine mollusc with a flattened, cone-shaped shell, usually found adhering strongly to rocks, where they graze on algal biofilms. Some species have a home groove that they return to, where they can clamp themselves down to survive low tide and fend off predators.

The radula of limpets is among the strongest biological materials known, about five times stronger than that of spider silk, with teeth woven from the iron mineral goethite.