Inventory of marine molluscs in Gulf of Oran (Western Algerian coastline)

This present paper made it possible to update the inventory of benthic malacofauna in the soft bottoms of gulf of Oran.  Samples of macrobenthic fauna were collected and separated from the Molluscs from other zoological groups. ۱۱۶ Molluscs inventoried and determined by the species, including ۱۳ orders, ۲۰ families, ۲۴ genuses and ۲۹ species. Bivalvia is represented better than Gastropoda with respectively, ۲۴ and ۵ species. The analyzed taxa highlighted the dominant and main species on the bottom of the study sites, including Nuculana commutata, which appeared as the major species, followed by Nucula sulcata with respectively ۲۳,۴۶% and ۱۲,۳۴%. The present inventory indicates that the malacological fauna is less diversified than in the other zones studied of the Algerian coast.

Keywords:

Malacofauna , Softbottom , Mollusc , Bivalvia , Gasteropoda , Gulf of Oran