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 Calico Clam

Megapitaria maculata (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the most attractive local bivalves. Its shell may grow to almost 70 mm (about 2.8 inches). The glossy, translucent periostracum (outer shell layer) is superimposed on a pattern of very fine growth lines. The shells bear variations on a pattern of brown-and-tan checkerboard-like markings. The Calico Clam is a member of the super-speciose (with many species) family of Venus clams, the Veneridae, which includes at least 20 species in the area of Sanib

Shell of the Week: The True Tulip

Fasciolaria tulipa (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the most celebrated local marine snails. Sometimes reaching in excess of 23 cm (about 9 inches), this voracious predator is known to feed on other mollusks and small invertebrates. The shell name alludes to its general shape, resembling a tulip (the flower.) The shell color is very variable, with variations around a theme of fine spiral bands and large irregular spots of orange, brown, reddish-orange, ochre, and similar colors. The animal itself is r

Beyond Shells: The Giant Rock Scallop

The Giant Rock Scallop, Crassadoma gigantea, is another nice highlight from the cold-water touch pool at the Museum. The fact that many species of scallops can swim, relying on bursts of jet-propelled water, always comes up when we talk about the cool things mollusks do for a living. But Giant Rock Scallops are large scallops that don’t swim, spending instead their adult lives attached to hard surfaces such as rocks. Like their swimming relatives, Giant Rock Scallops have a large number of small

A Bivalved Snail?

When discussing mollusks with members of our staff, volunteers, and visitors, I always caution them that sweeping generalizations about our beloved animals almost never work. We should be prudent and avoid saying “all marine snails have gills,” or “clams always make their homes on sand,” and so on. Exceptions abound! A standard example includes the members of the gastropod family Juliidae, minute marine snails that have their shells consisting of two separate hinged parts, or valves, just like a

Alphabet Cone and the Seven Chitons!

Shell Museum friend and photographer Amy Tripp captured this great image of seven Eastern Beaded Chitons, Chaetopleura apiculata, "hitchhiking" on an Alphabet Cone snail, Conus spurius, on Kice Island, to the south of Marco Island, Florida. Chiton shells are divided into eight ( or very rarely seven) plates, or valves. They belong to a class of mollusks named Polyplacophora (from the Greek words for "many," "plates," and "bearers"). The plates are interlocked, and are surrounded by a fleshy tis

Shell of the Week: The Cuban Vitrinella

Cyclostremiscus cubanus (Pilsbry & Aguayo, 1933) is a very small member of the family Tornidae. The shell reaches only about 1.5 mm (0.06 inch) in diameter! The shell is disk-shaped, with a sculpture of three strong keels with moderately deep interspaces between them, with the abapical (away from the apex, in this case the “center” of the shell) one most prominent. Umbilicus large, base with a strong additional keel that forms the “lower” angle of the aperture. A series of well-spaced radial rib

Shell of the Week: The Orange-rib Drillia

Bellaspira pentagonalis (Dall, 1889) is a local, small member of the family Drilliidae that reaches only about 4 mm (0.16 inch). The shell is spindle-shaped, with a smooth, semi-glossy surface and about 6–7 rounded axial ribs. The aperture spans about 1/3 of the shell length. Color is pure-white, with large yellowish-brown spots.

Clench, Cecelia, Tucker, and the Cat!

In a 1974 photo, Shell Museum Founding Director and renowned shell-book author R. Tucker Abbott (holding the cat) is accompanied by his wife Cecelia and Harvard’s renowned shell scientist William J. Clench (holding the cat’s right paw!). In the mid-20th century, Bill Clench was a mentor and graduate studies advisor at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology to an entire generation of American malacologists, including Tucker. In the summer of 1921, as a graduation present from his fath

National Shell Museum Turns 25!

November 18, the Museum's anniversary, is always a special day for us. But this Thursday, November 18, will be extra-special, as the Museum will be celebrating its Silver Anniversary, its first quarter century of many more quarter-centuries to come! It seems like yesterday that the Museum had its Grand Opening, but the organization has seen so much progress since that bright day on Sanibel Island. The Museum's uniqueness lies in the fact that it is the only professional, educational, and fully A

Beyond Shells! The Red Turban Snail

One of the species we display in the cold-water touch pool of our Beyond Shells! exhibition is the Red Turban Snail, Pomaulax gibberosus (Dillwyn, 1817), a gastropod from the rocky shores of the West Coast of North America, where it is found from Mexico to Alaska. Red Turban Snails live from the low-tide zone and down to 80 m (about 260 ft) depth, in the cold waters of its native range. The species is usually associated with stands of Giant Kelp, Macrocystis integrifolia, on which it grazes. The