Diversity of Mollusca along the coasts of Türkiye

The present study is based on a species list published in 2014 and a compilation of data from papers on marine molluscs along the coasts of Türkiye published from that date until the end of April 2024, along with six new records presented herein. Mollusca were represented by 1133 species classified into 7 classes, 255 families and 617 genera on the Turkish coasts. The Pyramidellidae (92 species) and Rissoidae (64 species) were species-rich mollusc families. Most of the listed molluscs were benthic, except for 26 pelagic species and 119 parasitic taxa. The Aegean Sea has the highest number of species (875 species), followed by the Levantine Sea (859 species), the Sea of Marmara (635 species) and the Black Sea (163 species). In total, 133 species are alien molluscs which have entered the Mediterranean Sea via different pathways. The molluscs distributed along the Turkish coasts were mostly encountered in soft substrates at shallow depths (0-10 m) (752 species), and only 109 species were reported at depths over 600 m.