Abalone – Haliotidae

Classification

Class: Gastropoda

Clade: Vetigastropoda

Superfamily: Haliotoidea

Family: Haliotidae

 Single Genus: Haliotis

 

Abalones attach to rocky surfaces with extremely strong suction applied at their foot. Their ventilating stream enters just above the foot, and rather than a slit arrangement for the exiting waste stream, they use several of the most recent holes along the edge of the shell (the remaining holes are usually plugged). Abalones have rather elaborate secondary gill structures all along the upper edge of the foot, as shown in the live mollusc picture below. They feed exclusively on green algae.

Highly prized as food, the slow-growing, temperate water abalone, Haliotis rufescens, is today scarce from over-harvesting. The Tropical Abalone is rapid growing and a plentiful resource in Southeast Asia; Japanese chefs find little if any difference in taste.

Abalones look very different in general shape, but they as well as several other clades, namely top shells, slit shells, true limpets and keyhole limpets, all share a common evolutionary ancestry. These various groups comprise the Order: Archaeogastropoda. They are all spirally coiled, top-shaped or somewhat flattened, and have a wide aperture pressed close to the ground. The limpet shell is coiled in immature forms although it shows a loss of coiling in the adult. Furthermore, all still show some vestiges of a primitive bilateral symmetry (i.e., paired gills, paired glands, paired kidneys, etc.). Torsion is also reduced, unlike the strong torsion seen in more advanced gastropod orders, where loss of the right gill and right hand portions of other paired organs are common.

 

HALIOTIDAE
Haliotis arabiensis	Haliotis virginea stewartae	Haliotis (Haliotis) asinina	Haliotis (Haliotis) clathrata	Haliotis (Haliotis) clathrata tomricei (var.)
Haliotis (Haliotis) coccoradiata	Haliotis (Haliotis) corrugata corrugata	Haliotis (Haliotis) corrugata corrugata diegoensis (var.)	Haliotis (Haliotis) corrugata oweni	Haliotis (Haliotis) cracherodii cracherodii
Haliotis (Haliotis) cracherodii californiensis	Haliotis (Haliotis) crebrisculpta	Haliotis (Haliotis) cyclobates	Haliotis (Haliotis) discus discus	Haliotis (Haliotis) discus hannai
Haliotis (Haliotis) dissona	Haliotis (Haliotis) diversicolor diversicolor	Haliotis (Haliotis) diversicolor diversicolor tayloriana (var.)	Haliotis (Haliotis) diversicolor squamata	Haliotis (Haliotis) dohrniana
Haliotis (Haliotis) elegans	Haliotis (Haliotis) fatui	Haliotis (Haliotis) fulgens fulgens	Haliotis (Haliotis) fulgens guadalupensis	Haliotis (Haliotis) fulgens turveri
Haliotis (Haliotis) geigeri	Haliotis (Haliotis) gigantea	Haliotis (Haliotis) gigantea sieboldii (var.)	Haliotis (Haliotis) glabra	Haliotis (Haliotis) jacnensis jacnensis
Haliotis (Haliotis) jacnensis kershawi	Haliotis (Haliotis) kamtschatkana kamtschatkana	Haliotis (Haliotis) kamtschatkana assimilis	Haliotis (Haliotis) laevigata	Haliotis (Haliotis) madaka
Haliotis (Haliotis) mariae mariae	Haliotis (Haliotis) mariae dentata	Haliotis (Haliotis) marmorata	Haliotis (Haliotis) midae	Haliotis (Haliotis) mykonosensis
Haliotis (Haliotis) ovina ovina	Haliotis (Haliotis) ovina ovina patamakanthini (var.)	Haliotis (Haliotis) ovina volcanius	Haliotis (Haliotis) parva	Haliotis (Haliotis) planata
Haliotis (Haliotis) pourtalesii pourtalesii	Haliotis (Haliotis) pourtalesii aurantium	Haliotis (Haliotis) pulcherrima	Haliotis (Haliotis) pustulata	Haliotis (Haliotis) pustulata cruenta (var.)
Haliotis (Haliotis) queketti	Haliotis (Haliotis) roei	Haliotis (Haliotis) rubiginosa	Haliotis (Haliotis) rubra rubra	Haliotis (Haliotis) rubra conicopora
Haliotis (Haliotis) rufescens	Haliotis (Haliotis) rufescens hattorii (var.)	Haliotis (Haliotis) rugosa	Haliotis (Haliotis) semiplicata	Haliotis (Haliotis) sorenseni
Haliotis (Haliotis) spadicea	Haliotis (Haliotis) speciosa	Haliotis (Haliotis) squamosa	Haliotis (Haliotis) stomatiaeformis	Haliotis (Haliotis) supertexta
Haliotis (Haliotis) thailandis	Haliotis (Haliotis) tuberculata tuberculata	Haliotis (Haliotis) tuberculata tuberculata lamellosa (var.)	Haliotis (Haliotis) tuberculata coccinea	Haliotis (Haliotis) tuberculata fernandesi
Haliotis (Haliotis) rugosa rodriguensis	Haliotis (Haliotis) unilateralis	Haliotis (Haliotis) varia	Haliotis (Haliotis) varia papulata (var.)	Haliotis (Haliotis) walallensis
Haliotis (Marinauris) brazieri	Haliotis (Marinauris) brazieri hargravesi (var.)	Haliotis (Padollus) dalli dalli	Haliotis (Padollus) dalli roberti	Haliotis (Padollus) scalaris scalaris
Haliotis (Padollus) scalaris emmae	Haliotis (Paua) iris	Haliotis (Paua) virginea virginea	Haliotis (Paua) virginea crispata	Haliotis (Paua) virginea huttoni
Haliotis (Paua) virginea morioria	Haliotis (Sulculus) australis