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

Abstract

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. 116 Molluscs inventoried and determined by the species, including 13 orders, 20 families, 24 genuses and 29 species. Bivalvia is represented better than Gastropoda with respectively, 24 and 5 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 23,46% and 12,34%. The present inventory indicates that the malacological fauna is less diversified than in the other zones studied of the Algerian coast.