Size: Up to about 14mm long. Shape: Slightly elongated chiton with a relatively narrow girdle - the shell making up 80% of the width. Valves are medium height with a keel. Shell colour: Colouration is typically off white or cream but may be partially covered by black deposits of iron or manganese salts. Sculpture: Slightly granular sculpture. Girdle: Typically unbanded but may be blackened by deposits of iron or manganese. It is distinctively covered with very large oval scales (0.1mm on diameter). Animal: Gills present almost all along the grooves on either side of the foot (holobranch).
- Girdle displays very obvious large oval granules (more granular than the valve surface)
- White or cream valves
Found from low water to depths exceeding 500m but most common down to 100m. It is found on rocks/shells. It feeds by grazing material from the rock surface using its radula
Uncommon but found around most of the British Isles. Generally distributed through-out the Boreal and Artic Seas occurring off the coasts of Greenland, Scandinavia, North America and Britain and extending to the White, Barents and Baltic Seas.
- Baxter, J.M. and Jones, A.M. 1987. Molluscs: Caudofoveata Solenogastres Polyplacophora and Scaphopoda. London.