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.

Triton Children and Their Parents

Last Monday I posted “When the children look nothing like their famous parents” in the Museum’s social media: The original image showed two distinctive stages in the life of the Atlantic Triton Trumpet, Charonia variegata, a large marine snail that can be found offshore along the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, east coast of Florida, and the Keys. The 10 mm (about 3/8-inch) juvenile shell, shown here in the top-middle, looks nothing like the 330 mm (about 13-inches), adult shell of the same speci

Abalones Under Threat

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has since 1964 published the Red List of Threatened Species. The list is a great tool, informing about biodiversity and conservation, and providing data for policy change and protection of natural resources. Invertebrates such as mollusks have traditionally been neglected and only relatively recently have found their way into the Red List. The abalone family Haliotidae is one of the few families of mollusks with all known species covered

Shell of the Week: The Knobbed Triton

Also known as the Knobbly Triton, Gutturnium muricinum, is one among many triton species (family Cymatiidae) found along the east coast of Florida and the Florida Keys. (The genus Gutturnium is *monotypic*, i.e., it includes only one species.) The Knobbed Triton is also present in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico throughout the Caribbean south to Brazil. They can grow up to 75 mm (about three inches). Triton snails have larvae that spend weeks, sometimes months, living in open water. The protocon

Wrapping Up “Shell and Tell”

As the National Shell Museum reaches the crucial stage of its post-Hurricane Ian reconstruction period and once again closes its doors to the visiting public, time has come to thank the volunteers that staffed the Shell and Tell presentation on the second floor of the Museum. Starting last February 1st, when the Museum reopened temporarily, Kathy Kenley, Linda Kramer, Angela Marsland, Ann Moeder, brothers Cabe and Holt Rieck, and Karen Turner took turns bringing the program to fruition with dedi

Wing Oysters and Sea Fans

Wing (or Winged) oysters get their common name from the wing-like expansions on their shells, also known as "auricles". The shells of young individuals show relatively larger auricles when compared to those of adults. The internal shell surface is nacreous, or pearl-like. Wing oysters and pearl oysters are members of the family Pteriidae and are not very closely related to true (edible) oysters, which belong in the family Ostreidae. Atlantic Wing Oysters, Pteria colymbus, are commonly found livi

Shell of the Week: The Scaly Pearl Oyster

A not-so-common bivalve from Florida, Pinctada longisquamosa differs from the more commonly found Atlantic Pearl Oyster, Pinctada imbricata, among other characters, mainly by the long, overlapping projections on its periostracum (the external shell layer.) The species reaches 29 mm in size (about 1.15 inches), and is found from Bermuda, Bahamas, east coast of Florida and the Keys, throughout the southern Caribbean Sea to Venezuela and Colombia. Illustration created by Patricia A. Starkey for the

The Thrush Cowrie Rides Again!

Another occurrence of the non-native Thrush Cowrie, Naria turdus, in Palm Beach County, this time by Trent Gamble, who stumbled on the shell on the beach in Boca Raton, about a mile north of Boca Inlet. Thanks to Bruce Haver, who photographed the shell, and Don Swenson, who made the connection with Bruce and Trent possible. The Thrush Cowrie was first reported in Florida last month, in paper co-authored by Anton Oleinik, José H. Leal, Anne Dupont, Nuch Uthairat. Read the paper here.#nariaturdus

FUM 2023, This Weekend!

The thirteenth meeting of Florida United Malacologists will take place this Saturday, April 15, at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Fish & Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), in St. Petersburg, Florida. The one-day gathering typically includes presentations by researchers, enthusiasts, citizen scientists, educators, and students, and covers a broad swath of mollusk-related topics. This year’s event will include 15 presentations covering a broad swath of topics in malac

Shell of the Week: The Salle Auger

Hastula salleana (Deshayes, 1859), is a marine snail of the auger family Terebridae that may reach about 40 mm (about 1.6 inch) in height. Hastula augers inhabit sandy beaches, where they thrive along the boundary between land and water, being most active during ebbing tides. Hastula augers are known to feed on polychaete worms. They inject a cocktail of toxins into their prey using their hypodermic-needle-like radular teeth, in the same manner as their cousins, the cone snails. The species is f

Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw

The above expression, immortalized by Lord Tennyson in his poem, “In Memoriam A.H.H.” serves as an appropriate caption for this powerful image by Amy Tripp of a Ring-billed Gull, Larus delawarensis, ready to eat what looks like a Pigmy Octopus, Octopus joubini. But in this case, the metaphor, which embodies the violent nature of predation, should be something like “Nature, clear in beak and claw,” as the “blood” of octopuses is clear-colored, and birds have beaks without teeth. Gulls are basica