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 Allure of Small Size

Micromollusks, by definition, never grow larger than 5 mm (0.2 inches). Despite their small size, micromollusks may have shells as attractive as those of their larger-sized cousins, and have life processes just as complex. Scientific surveys done in different regions of the planet indicate that very large shares of the marine mollusk biodiversity in those areas consist of micromollusks. For instance, on Sanibel and Captiva islands (Florida) alone, there are at least 20 species of vitrinellas (ph

The Lightning Whelk’s Reverse Harem

Lightning Whelks, Sinistrofulgur sinistrum, are special in several ways. Not only are their shells left-handed (shell opens to the left) but, during mating season in late fall and winter, several males may converge on a much-larger female to fertilize her eggs. During the mating event, each male will fertilize a different batch of eggs in the same female. When the young start hatching in late winter-early fall, a single string of egg capsules will yield children from the same mother, but from di

Shell of the Week: The Clawed Marginella

Dentimargo idiochila (Schwengel, 1943), reaches 6 mm (about 0.24 inch). The shell has a relatively long, pointed spire, an aperture that spans about half of the shell length, and the columella with four folds. The shell is smooth, glossy, yellowish, sometimes with two whitish bands on the last shell whorl. The species is found along the coast of east Florida and the Florida Keys. The distinctive feature on the shell of this species is the prominent tooth-like, or claw-like projection on the ante

Safety in Numbers?

Cone snails are known to perform communal spawning (AKA as group spawning), where many females deposit their egg capsules in the same spot. But it looks like this small group of communal-spawning cone snails include two species, the Florida Cone, Conus anabathrum, and the Alphabet Cone, Conus spurius. They were apparently laying their eggs on an empty Horseshoe Crab carapace, at Caxambas Pass, south of Marco Island, Florida. We accept that the communal spawning behavior supposedly improves on th

FUM 2023

The thirteenth meeting of Florida United Malacologists will take place on Saturday, April 15, 2023, 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. The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum hosted the first FUM in 2010, and the event

Shell of the Week: The Florida Miter

Dibaphimitra florida (A. Gould, 1856) reaches up to 74 mm (about 2.9 inches). A marine gastropod of the miter family Mitridae, it is found in relatively shallow water off the coast of east Florida, the Keys, and the northern Caribbean Region. The shell is attractive, with a regular pattern of small light-brown spots set against a yellowish-white background. I’ve seen novice shell enthusiasts confusing this species with the celebrated Junonia. Illustration by James F. Kelly for the Museum’s Digit

A Big World Record Size Shell!

The National Shell Museum received a new world record size shell for its collection! Mr. Donald Dan, of Fort Myers, Florida, generously acquired the record-size West Indian Chank, Turbinella angulata, for the Museum collection. The shell, collected years ago by shrimp fishermen offshore of Roatan, Honduras, measures 499 mm (just under 20 inches). The gift was reported in the Monday, February 13, online version of the Fort Myers News-Press, with a comprehensive interview about the species and the

Shell of the Week: The Eared Ark

Anadara notabilis (Röding, 1798), reaches 92 mm (about 3.6 inches). Its shell valves have about 25 to 27 radial ribs per whorl, with fine commarginal (“concentric”) lines cross the ribs, giving a beaded aspect to the valves in this species. The shell is white and the periostracum, when present, is brown and heavy (but not as heavy as in the Ponderous Ark, Noetia ponderosa. This species occurs in shallow water along the coast of East Florida and the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, but is no

Three New Nautilus Species!

Exciting news in the world of mollusks, with the recent description (the research article was published yesterday, January 25, 2023) by Gregory J. Barord and his collaborators of three new species of Nautilus. The three species occur respectively off American Samoa (Nautilus samoaensis), Fiji (N. vitiensis), and Vanuatu (N. vanuatuensis), all in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. The authors used contemporary techniques to define the new species, including evidence from shell and body anatomy, all val

The 2023 Live Mollusk Count

On Sunday, January 22, volunteers and staff from the National Shell Museum and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation completed the 2023 Live Mollusk Count. The count took place along the Gulf side on the eastern end of Sanibel Island, at low tide, including 27 participants. National Shell Museum Science Director & Curator José H. Leal observed that “the 2023 Shell Count achieved very good results. The number of participants, methods, and count area lend themselves to comparisons with the J