Intertidal Gastropods (Gastropoda: Mollusca): Insights on diversity and distribution in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, India.

The coastline of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is among the most anthropogenically altered in the country. Despite this, documentation of the regions intertidal marine diversity remains limited. A lack of taxonomic research has led to inconsistencies in species identification and inadequate ecosystem representation. This study addresses these issues by focusing on the Molluscan class Gastropoda from the intertidal regions within the MMR. We present the spatial distribution of gastropod assemblages from 28 rocky, sandy and muddy intertidal sites within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, on Indias west coast. A total of 163 species were recorded from 2934 observations of marine gastropods. Among these, 29 species, 34 genera and one family are new records for the region. Additionally, 5 species of nudibranchs were rediscovered after 78 years; one species from Neogastropoda after 131 years and one from Siphonariida after 31 years, from their type locality, Mumbai. These species are herein illustrated with detailed morphological descriptions and their local distribution.