West Indian Fuzzy Chiton
The West Indian fuzzy chiton (Acanthopleura granulata) is a chiton of Caribbean rocky shores whose shell plates carry hundreds of tiny eyes. It is one of the few animals with eyes made of the mineral aragonite.
The West Indian fuzzy chiton (Acanthopleura granulata) is a chiton of Caribbean rocky shores whose shell plates carry hundreds of tiny eyes. It is one of the few animals with eyes made of the mineral aragonite.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open West Indian Fuzzy Chiton in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Lophotrochozoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Eyes in the Armor
Each of the many small eyes embedded in the plates has a lens made of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate, and a retina below. They give the chiton an image, though a coarse one, enough to detect the shadow of a predator.
Using the Eyes
Chitons clamp down when a shadow passes over them. Experiments showed that the animals respond to objects as they would if the eyes were forming an image.
Surf-Zone Life
The chiton lives on the rocks of the splash zone and grazes algae at night. See Mossy Chiton.
West Indian Fuzzy Chiton at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Acanthopleura granulata |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Mollusca |
| Class | Polyplacophora |
| Order | Chitonida |
| Family | Chitonidae |
| Field Guide group | Lophotrochozoa: Mollusca (Mollusks) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Gray, eroded eight-plated shell with a fuzzy girdle; hundreds of tiny eyes with mineral lenses are embedded in the shell plates. |
| Class | Polyplacophora |
| Lens material | Aragonite |
See Also
- Mossy Chiton — another chiton
- Great Scallop — a mollusc with many eyes