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.

Shell of the Week: The Bleeding Tooth

Nerita peloronta Linnaeus, 1758, is a relatively common species on the rocky shores of the Caribbean and the East Coast of Florida. The Bleeding Tooth is a member of the nerite family (Neritidae) that may reach 50 mm (about two inches). Nerites are known to dissolve the internal part of the shell, including the central, pillar-like structure known as the columella. Shell dissolution affords extra space and allows the snail to retain a little water during low tides. And the common name of the spe

The Flat Mollusks Society

When walking the local beaches, National Shell Museum staff and local enthusiasts are always on the lookout for shells that are distorted, clipped, or bored by predators, shells with attached creatures, and any other molluscan oddities that may catch their fancy. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Mike Reardon, who volunteers in the Museum collection, picked up a large fragment of a Sawtooth Pen Shell with several dead, dry mollusks attached (see photo). Among those were barnacles, Black-foot Slipper Sn

Shell of the Week: The Hawk-wing Conch

Lobatus raninus (Gmelin, 1791), resembles its relative, the Milk Conch, but the shell is smaller (reaching about 120 mm, or 4.7 inches), and the flared outer lip of adults rarely surpasses the spire apex (the “tip” of the shell). The species is one of many in the Strombidae (the family of true conchs) known to display dwarfism. Dwarf forms show all the features of mature individuals such as thickened and flared outer lip, but at a much smaller size than expected for that species. At least one dw

Shell of the Week: The Glory of the Seas Venus

Callpita eucymata (Dall, 1890), is a member of the venus clam family Veneridae. The species reaches 27 mm in size, and its outer surface is sculptured with about 50 flattened commarginal (“concentric”) ribs. The color pattern has reddish-brown blotches that resemble tents, or “mountain ranges”, set against a cream-white background. The species has a broad distribution in the western Atlantic, living from the coast of New Jersey through northern Brazil, and also present in deeper water in the Gul

Blackwater Moments

Beginning today, December 10, 2021, the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum will be offering a new exhibition titled Blackwater Moments: Nocturnal Photography of Open-Ocean Mollusks. The exhibition will be on view through May 30, 2022 on the second floor of the Museum during regular Museum hours.“In the open ocean at night, many animals move up from deeper water to feed,” said José H. Leal, Ph.D., Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum Science Director and Curator, who organized the exhibition.

An Eye-catching Conch

The large gastropods from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico traditionally played major roles in Meso American and Mexican cultures. This shell of a Queen Conch, Aliger gigas, is a replica of similarly decorated shells from ancient cultural areas around Mexico City. The shell is covered with a mosaic of obsidian, lapis-lazuli, and other stones, and its apex, or shell tip, has been sawed off, so the shell could be used as a "trumpet" or "horn". Photographed in Teotihuacan, Mexico, in 2014.

Shell of the Week: The Brown Moon Snail

Polinices hepaticus (Röding, 1798), is a member of the Naticidae (the family of moon snails) that has a broad distribution in the tropical western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. The species is not found along the coast of Southwest Florida, though. It reaches 55 mm (about 2.2 inches) in size, with brown shell color and white on the area of the aperture (around the opening). Like Shark Eyes in the genus Neverita, the Brown Moon Snail has a brown, horn-like operculum, in contrast to moon snails in t

A Very Special Sea Slug!

A sea slug that lives in open water, looks like a fish, and glows in the dark? That is Phylliroe bucephala, a transparent, three inches-long nudibranch mollusk that can be found swimming in the upper layers of the open ocean throughout the world’s tropical and subtropical ocean regions. This image, by black-water diver and photographer Linda Ianiello of West Palm Beach, Florida, shows the sea slug feeding on a jellyfish, possibly a Aequorea species. A few amphipod crustaceans can be seen within

Shell of the Week: The Florida Auger

Reaching 68 mm (about 2.7 inches) in size, Terebra floridana (Dall, 1889) is one of the largest species of auger snails in the western Atlantic. Augers are usually found in the sand close to the water edge, in medium- to coarse-sand habitats, where they feed on marine worms, but the Florida Auger is found in deeper water off both coasts of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Augers are closely related to cone snails and, like them, use their radula teeth, which are like tiny harpoons, to inject veno

Shell of the Week: The Bladed Wentletrap

Reaching 18 mm (about 0.7 inches) in size, Epitonium albidum (d’Orbigny, 1842) has a thin, light shell with a sculpture of 10–14 sharp, delicate, blade-like ribs (known as “costae”). Unlike other local wentletrap species, the ribs on the Bladed Wentletrap bear no hooks or projections. The ribs on successive whorls are aligned, forming slanted “rows.” The shell in the image is from the Bahamas, but the species is also found on Sanibel and other parts of Florida, including the Florida Keys. A larg