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Sheltered muddy sandy gravel and pebbles in marine inlets, estuaries or embayments with variable salinity or fully marine conditions, support large populations of the pullet carpet shell Venerupis corrugata with the brittlestar Amphipholis squamata and the tanaid Apseudes latreilli. This biotope may be found at a range of depths from 5 m to 30 m although populations of V. senegalensis may also be found on the low shore. Other common species within this biotope include the gastropod Calyptraea chinensis, a range of amphipod crustacea such as Monocorophium sextonae and Maera grossimana, polychaetes such as Mediomastus fragilis, Melinna palmata, Aphelochaeta marioni, Syllids, and tubificid oligochaetes. Many of the available records for this biotope are from southern inlets and estuaries such as Plymouth Sound and Milford Haven but V. senegalensis has a much wider distribution and it should be noted that northern versions of this biotope may a have a much lower species diversity than reported here.

Shallow mixed (heterogeneous) sediments in fully marine or near fully marine conditions, supporting various animal-dominated communities, with relatively low proportions of seaweeds. This habitat may include well mixed muddy gravelly sands or very poorly sorted mosaics of shell, cobbles and pebbles embedded in mud, sand or gravel. Due to the quite variable nature of the sediment type, a widely variable array of communities may be found, including those characterised by bivalves (SS.SMx.IMx.VcorAsquAps, SS.SMx.IMx.CreAsAn, and SS.SMx.IMx.Ost), polychaetes (SS.SMx.IMx.SpavSpAn) and file shells (SS.SMx.IMx.Lim). This has resulted in many species being described as characteristic of this biotope complex all contributing only a small percentage to the overall similarity (see below). This biotope complex may also include a newly proposed Chaetopterus biotope (Rees pers com.) recently found in the eastern English Channel. This biotope is characterised by an undescribed Chaetopterus sp. and small Lanice conchilega. Further sampling is need in order to assess and fully characterise this potential biotope. As a result, the Chaetopterus biotope has not been included in this revision. Infaunal data for this biotope complex are limited to that described in the biotope SS.SMx.IMx.VcorAsquAps and so are not representative of the infaunal component of the whole biotope complex.