Curator’s Corner

Museum, research, and collection updates from Dr. José H. Leal, plus Shell of the Week, which highlights a different species every other Friday. Most Shells of the Week are found in Southwest Florida.

Dr. José H. Leal serves as the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium’s Science Director and Curator. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Miami and has served at the Museum since 1996.

The Angel Wing and Its Siphons

Angel Wings (Cyrtopleura costata) live buried in sand or mud, inhabiting a cylindrical tunnel, which they occupy for the duration of their lives. Like most bivalve mollusks, Angel Wings are filter feeders, pulling water in through an incurrent siphon, pushing it through the gills, where the food particles are retained, then returning the water back to the environment via an excurrent siphon. The siphons are extensible, relatively long, and longitudinally fused. The incurrent siphon is wider than

Shell of the Week: The Tinted Cantharus

Gemophos tinctus is a relatively common gastropod around the islands of Southwest Florida, where it may be found living mostly on oyster reefs (photo on top). The shell in this species is thick and heavy for its size, with a reticulated (“criss-crossed”) sculpture and color pattern of diverse shades of brown and reddish brown. Tinted Cantharus are known to feed on the barnacles that thrive on oyster reefs, using their ribbon of teeth, the radula, to reach through the shelly barnacle carapaces. I

Shell of the Week: The King Venus

Lirophora paphia is a member of the venus clam family Veneridae that may reach 35 mm (about 1.4 inches) in length. Its shell valves are relatively thick and adorned with 10–15 prominent ridges. The shell color is white, often superimposed with a pattern of zigzag or triangular markings. The species is found from Florida south to Rio de Janeiro State in Brazil. #lirophorapaphia #chionepaphia #veneridae #kingclam #sombrerokey #floridakeys

Publicizing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections

This past weekend (April 20-21), Science Director and Curator Dr. José H. Leal attended the 2024 Northeast Natural History Conference in Albany, New York. José participated in a session titled “Frontiers in Marine Invertebrate Digitization”, organized by Drs. Liz Shea and Gary Rosenberg. The session was designed to promote the use of natural history collections by those working in environmental sciences, ecology, and biodiversity. The presenters are researchers involved in two National Science F

Shell of the Week: The Lightning Pitar

Reaching only about 48 mm (1.89 inches), Pitar fulminatus has an inflated shell, with a sculpture of crowded growth lines. Its color is white or chalky-white with yellowish-brown zigzag or lightning-like markings.  The Lightning Pitar is a member of the highly diverse family Veneridae, the venus clams. The species is found from North Carolina to both coasts of Florida, and Bermuda.#pitarfulminatus #lightiningpitar #veneridae #sanibel

The Gorgeous McGinty’s Cyphoma

On March 14, underwater photographer Ariane Dimitris took pictures of a couple of living Cyphoma mcginty off Pompano Beach, east coast of Florida.  To me, the McGinty Cyphoma is the most attractive among the several species of the genus Cyphoma found in the western Atlantic. I love the color pattern of its mantle (flap of skin that makes and covers the shell), with its round pink-gray spots. The photo above shows the anterior part of the snail with the siphon in the center (Thanks to Ariane for

Shell of the Week: The Ivory Cerith

Cerithium eburneum Bruguière, 1792 reaches 43 mm (1.7 inches). Its shell sculpture consists of knobby spiral cords and occasional varices indicative of growth stops. The number of small knobs or beads in the spiral cords is extremely variable in this species. The color is white, sometimes with irregular light-brown areas. The species is found in the Gulf of Mexico and from the east coast of Florida south to the Caribbean and to northeastern Brazil. Lori Campbell found the juvenile shell illustra

Ten remarkable marine species for 2023: four are mollusks!

The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) just released its annual list of the top-ten marine species described during 2023. A call for nominations was announced in December 2023, sent to all editors of WoRMS and editors of major taxonomy journals, and posted openly on the WoRMS website and social media so anyone had the opportunity to nominate their favorite marine species. Nominated species must have been described between January 1st and December 31st, 2023, and have come from the marine e

Shell of the Week: The Elusive Atlantic Geoduck

Panopea bitruncata is a large bivalve closely related to the famous Pacific Geoduck (Panopea generosa). The Atlantic species is very uncommon.Geoducks (goo·ee·duhks) are members of the bivalve family Hiatellidae. They live buried in mud, have long siphons that cannot fully retract into the shell, and a shell with valves that do not completely shut when joined together. The maximum reported length for the Atlantic Geoduck is 190 mm (7.48 inches), and the single valve in the second image (above),

A Show for the Record Books!

Congratulations to the Sanibel Captiva Shell Club and to all involved in the planning and execution of the comprehensive and super well-attended 2024 Sanibel Shell Show at the Marriott Sanibel Harbour Resort. It was the best shell show I’ve took part in and one for the record books!