anemone?? or snail?? please help id

hey guys please help me id this ihave no idea what it is??

it moves but staying in one spot now??? like an anemone moving to where it likes??

has a white kinda base i would say and its a dark red color

heres pics...



thanks for the help
t

 

dont think its an anemone - maybe a chiton?

 

hey thanks for the reply, and hmm it kinda resembles it, except the top isnt smooth shell type nor does it have any defined body/shell lines...

but i think were getting somwhere...

 

Could it be a nudibranch?

 

I wouldn't have even hazarded a guess on this one, except I took a third look and noticed what appears to be "teeth" or spines protruding from the base of the animal. This is typically all you see on heavily-encrusted Astraea or Astralium shells, as only the row of spines nearest the base is likely to avoid encrustation. You should be able to verify this pretty easily, simply by removing it from the rock and comparing the base to the photos of the following species:

Astralium rhodostomum
Astralium calcar
Astralium plicatospinosum

The most likely ID, assuming it's a snail, is Astralium rhodostomum. Recent genetic studies have shown that there are several different species hiding under that name, but the differences are still being sorted out. The top link, above, shows shells which aren't particularly typical of the species. The third snail from the top on the Astralium calcar page is actually one of the variations of Astralium rhodostomum, and is more typical for the species (and more similar to yours, it appears) than the examples shown on the A. rhodostomum page.

If it's a Florida/Caribbean snail, the most likely option is Lithopoma americana. It's the Atlantic version of the "Astraea" snails listed above.

http://www.gastropods.com/1/Shell_6161.html

Let us know if that's what it turns out to be?

Cheers,



Don