Dissected mantle/girdle from 26 mm long specimen. Dorset, England. April 2017.
Immediately under the valves, the mantle is a tough, thin, translucent epidermis, but it is greatly thickened where it is reflected around the periphery of the animal to form a very wide, fleshy girdle into which the insertion plates of the valves are firmly embedded.
1: girdle with thin, tough cuticle removed.
2: girdle with part of its thickness and the cuticle cut away.
3: thin mantle in crescentic space below (removed) valve ii.

KEY ID FEATURES : 01 Acanthochitona fascicularis