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.

Giant African Snails Strike Again!

Once again, Lissachatina fulica has been found in Florida, this time in Miramar, a city in south Broward County. This is one more episode in the saga of the introduction of Giant African Snails (GAS) in the Sunshine State. The species has been introduced to Florida and found at least four times since 1966, most recently in 2022. Most of the time these introduced snails were eradicated, at the expense of copious amounts of taxpayer-supported funds. Originally from East Africa, the species has bee

Mollusks: More Than A Shell

Don't miss the new episode of Changing Seas! Seashells, with their beautiful shapes and colors, have inspired humans since the dawn of time. Equally fascinating are the mollusks that make them, and their unique place in the web of life. Researchers and citizen scientists continue to make new discoveries, while a cutting-edge digital project makes vast research collections easily accessible online. In case you missed the premiere of the first episode of the fifteenth series of Changing Seas on WP

Shell of the Week: The Little White Trivia

Trivia candidula is a marine gastropod of the family Triviidae, the false cowries, or trivias. It reaches about 8 mm (about 0.32 inch), and has a pure white color and a typical shell sculpture of strong ribs that surround the entire shell. The spaces between the ribs are smooth. Generally speaking, trivias feed on sea squirts and colonial ascidians, but the exact feeding habits of the Little White Trivia are unknown. The species has a very broad distribution in the Atlantic Ocean: it is found in

Shell of the Week: The Bleeding Tooth

Nerita peloronta is one of the iconic Florida shells, mostly due to splash of red color on the parietal shield, which, combined with the tooth-like projections on that area, gives the species its common name. The Bleeding Tooth can reach 47 mm (about 1.9 inches), has a thick, globose shell with sculpture of low spiral cords, and white color with grayish or dark-gray streaks. The operculum is hard, calcified, with pustules on the attachment surface. The species is found on the intertidal (between

Collection Work, Full Tilt

Work continues at a steady pace in the collection area here at the National Shell Museum, while staff awaits for the restoration of some of the walls and ceiling in that part of the building. As renovation of the Living Gallery on the ground floor of the Museum advances, curation, cataloging, and deployment of collection specimens on the third floor proceeds at a remarkable rate, despite damage perpetrated by Hurricane Ian. The bulk of ongoing collection work focuses on the National Science Foun

Thrilled With The Neptunea Award!

At the recent 2023 Conchologists of America Convention (COA) in Wilmington, North Carolina, I was honored with the celebrated Neptunea Award, along with my friends Bob and Alice Pace, and colleague (and friend) Dr Emily Vokes (not in the photo). The award was given for my “service to the science of Malacology as it applies to conchologists anywhere.” The honor is particularly meaningful to me, given that, as a professional malacologist, I always strived to narrow the perceived gaps between profe

Shell of the Week: The Depressed Top Snail

Calliostoma yucatecanum is one of the many eye-catching species of Calliostoma top snails found in moderately deep water off the southeastern USA and the Gulf of Mexico. Reaching about 16 mm (about 0.62 inch), the shell in this species is covered with spiral cords crossed by very fine axial lines. The color is cream-yellow, with little orangish marks flecked on the spiral ribs. The shell in the images was dredged in 1989 off Panama City (Florida Panhandle) between 30-60 m depth. Illustration is

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

Mollusks in “Changing Seas”

Early this Summer, the TV series “Changing Seas”, presented by WBPT-2 (South Florida PBS) station will feature an entire episode dedicated to mollusks and their shells, introducing the National Shell Museum as one of the relevant expert institutions. For now, check excerpts of the episode in the series of social media posts titled “Shells with Doc José Leal” featured in the “Changing Seas” and National Shell Museum’s Facebook and Instagram pages.@changingseas #changingseas https://www.facebook.c

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