Cavolinia uncinata (d’Orbigny, 1834)
Worldwide temperate waters. Mucus feeder on microzooplankton and phytoplankton, following the daily vertical migration performed by the zooplankton.
Original taxon: Hyalaea uncinata.
Synonyms: pulsata, pulsatapusilla, uncinatiformis.
300 m deep, Limassol, S.  Cyprus. 6mm.
Cavolinia uncinata in J. J. Tesch: Pteropoda,
Berlin 1913, page 52 via BHL.
 
«  The lateral extensions are long and pointed; in this area the shell is widest. The terminal spine is strongly developed (especially in small specimens), quite long, broad at the base, […] the tip is never broken, slightly hook-shaped curved, a septum in the end thorn does not occur. […] The front edge of the upper shell is very much bent and completely covers the opening; the bent part is not, as in C. tridentata, separated from the rest by a transverse bulge; the upper side shows five longitudinal ribs, the inner lateral is divided secondarily by a longitudinal groove, the outer is hardly pronounced as a special structure, the median longitudinal rib is clearly demarcated from the front by a semicircular furrow. In the areaof the lateral extensions, the shell is strongly compressed. On the front part of the underside there are quite indistinct transverse folds, which gradually disappear distally. The shell has a uniform, delicate brownish color. »
A specimen chasing off Ponta do Ouro, south of Maputo province, S. Mozambique. Original picture provided by G. Jones for iNaturalist – (CC BY-SA).
A specimen from Bermuda in its larval shell. Original picture provided by K. Santana Rodriguez for the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences – (CC BY).

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