Mollusk Discovery-Chiton

Chitons are mollusks that inhabit the intertidal and sub tidal regions and are called Polyplacophora because of the many plates on their back. Gumboot chitons or, Chryptochiton stelleri, is a type of chiton. Their location is in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, south to San Miguel and San Nicolas Islands off the coast of southern California. They are also found in northern Hokkaido Island, Japan, and the Kurile Islands in Kamchatka, Russia.The Gumboot Chiton is the largest chiton in the world, 13 inches in length 5 inches across. Also, they are covered by thick, leathery, brick-red flesh so we cannot see them(their way of camouflage I guess). They eat algae. They can live as long as 20 years. They mate by: sperm are released by males into the water and taken up by females. The reddish eggs are laid in jelly-like spiral strings measuring up to 3.3 feet in length. The strings are broken up into smaller pieces by ocean waves. The eggs hatch about five days after they are fertilized. The free-swimming larval stage lasts about twenty hours(less than one day). Then they settle to the bottom and develop into young chitons. Their taxonomy is:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Polyplacophora
Order: Neoloricata
Family: Acanthochitonidae
Genus: Cryptochiton
Species: stelleri

<-------------Gumboot Chiton! They are HUGE!

Video link: http://www.oceanfootage.com/video_clips/DR36_061
Information provided by:
http://oceanlink.island.net/biodiversity/gumboot/gumboot.html
http://animals.jrank.org/pages/1887/Chitons-Polyplacophora-GUMBOOT-CHITON-Cryptochiton-stelleri-SPECIES-ACCOUNTS.html 
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2124/2215538200_f4e92575e7.jpg