Thalassonerita

Thalassonerita is a monotypic genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Neritidae.

[2] T. naticoidea is endemic to underwater cold seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean.

[4] T. naticoidea lives in cold seeps in the northern Gulf of Mexico and in the accretionary wedge of Barbados in the Caribbean[5] in the upper continental slope, in depths from 400 to 2100 m.[5] Minimum recorded depth is 541 m.[6] Maximum recorded depth is 1135 m.[6] Examples of localities include: T. naticoidea has a shell that can be closed with a calcareous operculum.

[8] T. naticoidea lives at deep-sea cold seeps where hydrocarbons (oil and methane) are leaking out of the seafloor.

[9][12] T. naticoidea cannot move over mud or on soft sediments,[13] and usually lives on beds of Bathymodiolus childressi mussels.

[15] This was the first ultrastructural description of formation of yolk in today's clade Neritimorpha.

[12] Veliger larvae are hatched from eggs after four months of development from May to early July.

[12] There lives a fungal filamentous ascomycete (phylum Ascomycota) species as a commensal on the gills of T.

[10] When this discovery was published in 1999, it was the first such association between fungus and gastropod from underwater seep community.

Chemosynthetic communities in the northern part of Gulf Of Mexico around cold seeps known in 2006 include more than 50 communities.
The mussel species Bathymodiolus childressi , with which T. naticoidea is often associated