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 Music

Did you know that shells have been used for centuries as musical instruments? “There is no society without song, and there is no ritual or celebrations without accompanying sounds,” state the authors of an article published last year in ScienceAdvances (link below). In the article, C. Fritz and collaborators researched the oldest use of a shell as an instrument. Shells were among the first natural objects that lent themselves to use as instruments capable of producing variable sounds; in their a

Shell of the Week: The Paz Murex

Paziella pazi (Crosse, 1869) reaches 47 mm (about 1.9 inches), and is a very attractive species among a family known for cool-looking shells, the Muricidae. The species is found in moderately deep water in the Gulf of Mexico, East Coast of Florida and the Keys, Bahamas, and the northern Caribbean Sea. Paz’s Murex shells have a typical sculpture of about 4–6 long spines per whorl, The spines are very “open,” in some case deployed almost perpendicularly to the whorls. #paziellapazi #pazmurex #muri

Mollusks in the Local News!

Once again, mollusks made the front cover of the local (Fort Myers, Florida) News Press. Thanks to an extraordinary effort from the Sanibel Captiva Shell Club and its members, and under the serene leadership of Joyce Matthys, the first, local live-mollusks count took place on Sanibel, on Monday, January 3, during an early-day, very low, low tide! About 50 shell club members and friends participated, the National Shell Museum provided identification of less common species, and will be cooperating

Shell of the Week: The Chocolate-lined Top Snail

Calliostoma javanicum , (Lamarck, 1822), reaches 35 mm (about 1.4 inches), and is one the most attractive top snail species in the western Atlantic. Its shell is covered with dark-brown spiral lines, which are also present on the shell base (the “bottom” of the shell.) The shell outline is “triangular”, with the spire joining the base at a sharp angle. The species is present in the Gulf of Mexico (in deeper water), the Florida Keys, and the Caribbean south to Brazil.#calliostomajavanicum #chocol

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 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

Children That Don’t Look Like Their Famous Parents

The photos below show two distinctive stages in the life of the renowned Atlantic Triton Trumpet, Charonia variegata, a large marine snail that can be found along the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and parts of East Florida. Sometimes, when you are at a loss as to the identity of a larval or juvenile shell, you may want to “find the missing pieces of the puzzle,” the intermediary stages, or a growth series, linking that young shell to the mature, adult form. This is exactly what we did a few yea

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

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.

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