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Mediterranean Bioconstructions Along the Italian Coast 77

Fig. 4 (A) A vermetid reef platform and its hypothetical section. The circle represents
a close up of the rugged tubular shells of D. cristatum adults, sometimes cemented
by the coralline alga N. brassica-florida. The shell openings of Dendropoma are sealed
by a chitinous operculum. (B) The distribution of vermetid reefs along the Italian coast.
Points represent data with no associated surface area. Boundaries of points of data
layers are enhanced for illustrative purposes and do not reflect the real habitat extent.
Panel (A): Alberto Gennari.

D. petraeum into four species, two of which are widespread along the Italian
coasts: Dendropoma cristatum (Biondi, 1859) in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and
Dendropoma sp., a still unnamed species, in the Ionian Sea and the Salento
Peninsula (Templado et al., 2016).