#4838 · 🐌 snails, slugs & other molluscs

Owl Limpet

Lottia gigantea

🐌 Snails, slugs & other molluscs 📍 outside Europe

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © BJ Stacey · CC BY-NC 4.0
2. © Charlotte Seid · CC BY-NC 4.0
3. © juliamarkey · CC BY-NC 4.0
4. Monterey County, US-CA, US:© gcollins211 · CC BY-NC 4.0
5. North Pacific Ocean, Santa Cruz, CA, US:© teetertiptotterish · CC BY-NC 4.0
6. San Mateo County, CA, USA:© sandor_in · CC BY-NC 4.0
7. North Pacific Ocean, Santa Cruz, CA, US:© Victoria Heyse · CC BY-NC 4.0
8. North Pacific Ocean, CA, US:© N. Low · CC BY-NC 4.0
9. Vicente Bluffs Reserve Trail, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, US:© Gwen Noda · CC BY-NC 4.0
10. Village of La Jolla, San Diego, CA 92037, USA:© Millie Basden · CC BY 4.0

what is it?

Lottia gigantea , common name the owl limpet , giant owl limpet or solitary giant owl limpet , is a species of sea snail, a true limpet, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Lottiidae. Its genome has been sequenced at the Joint Genome Institute.

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 7,490iNaturalist observations

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
7,490 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.

fact sheet

English: Owl Limpet
scientific name: Lottia gigantea
class: Gastropoda
order: Nacellida
family: Lottiidae
sightings in NL: 0
sightings worldwide: 7,490
GBIF records in NL: 0
weight: —
length: —
lifespan: —

Sources: iNaturalist taxon 53750, Wikidata Q3166907, GBIF 2297856, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.