Timoclea grus (Holmes, 1858) en andere tropische tweekleppigen van een op Texel aangespoelde gascilinder

A 1.5 m long gas-cylinder found on the beach of the island of Texel (NL) was overgrown by numerous encrusting organisms. Some of these e.g. coral colonies of Favia fragrum indicated a tropical origin. This coral occurs on both sides of the Atlantic. A specimen of the Gray pygmy Venus Timoclea grus indicates a West Atlantic provenance of the gas-cylinder, as it lives along the coast of the US from North Carolina, around Key West (Florida) to Louisiana. The other bivalves were identified as tropical species (Ostrea equestris, Chama congregate) and Hiatella arctica and Gastrochaena dubia with a wider Atlantic distribution. This gas-cylinder must have crossed the Atlantic floating with the Gulf stream and the North Atlantic Drift.