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 False Mangelia

Yet another member of the hyper-diverse gastropod family Mangeliidae, Pyrgocythara filosa Rehder, 1943 grows to about 7 mm (0.28 inch) in length, and has a sculpture of about 10–12 axial ribs that span the entire whorl, each rib abutting the ones in previous whorls. The ribs are crossed by finer spiral lines. The shell color in this species is very distinctive, with each half-whorl divided into an anterior brown part and posterior cream-colored one. #pyrgocytharafilosa #falsemangelia #mangeliida

Shell of the Week: The White Mangelia

Another member of the very diverse gastropod family Mangeliidae, Tenaturris bartletti (Dall, 1889) has a body whorl comprising about half of the shell length in adult individuals, and a proportionately larger last whorl in juveniles. The sculpture consists of about 15 axial ribs crossed by fine spiral threads, and the entire shell surface has a “frosty” appearance. #tenaturrisbartletti #mangeliidae #whitemangelia #sanibel

Shell of the Week: The Spear Mangelia

Ithycythara lanceolata (C.B. Adams, 1850) is a slender-shelled mangeliid gastropod that grows up to 12 mm. The shell sculpture consists 6–8 well-marked axial ribs. Rib may form a “peak” in the middle of each whorl, where the whorl is wider. The shell is relatively abundant off the East Coast of Florida, but is also present in the Gulf of Mexico. The shell is usually white, but may present reddish-brown hues, mostly at the anterior end. The shell in the illustration was collected in December 1997

Shell of the Week: The Punctate Mangelia

The family Mangeliidae includes a very large number of microgastropods, most of which parade elegant, elongate shells. Kurtziella limonitella (Dall, 1884) grows to 9.5 mm (about 0.4 inch). The shell sculpture in this species comprises about 8–9 ribs on early whorls that increase in number to 14–15 on the last whorl of adult individuals. The microsculpture consists of fine spiral cords crossed by axial grooves; the intersections form little beads that impart a frosty appearance to the shell surfa

Cowries are Cool!

Throughout human history, the enjoyment of shells and curiosity they spark have been the foundation for the science and better understanding of mollusks. And no other group of shells evokes more interest and appreciation than cowries (family Cypraeidae). Their “egg-shaped” shells are usually smooth, glossy, and their weight “feels” just right when held in one's hand. From time to time the living snail covers the shell from both sides of a slit-like opening, and the shell-making mantle repairs bl

Metamorphosis in a Sea Snail

In a way that is analogous to what happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, the change in lifestyle from a pelagic (open-water dweller) larva to a bottom-living adult is also known as metamorphosis. The illustration presents three shell-growth stages of an Atlantic Gray Cowrie, Luria cinerea (Gmelin, 1791). From left: the planktonic (free-living) larval shell; juvenile shell briefly after settlement to the bottom-living stage; and adult shell. They are all so different, yet all are stages

Upside-down Baby!

In gastropod mollusks, the larval shell ("baby" shell, or protoconch), is usually retained in the apex (the "tip") of the adult shell. After metamorphosis from larva to adult, there may be differences in color, thickness, and texture between the protoconch and the adult shell, but usually the direction of coiling stays the same with growth. Gastropods with a right-handed larval shell continue to grow a right-handed adult shell, and vice versa.An exception to this same‐coiling-direction "rule" is

Shell of the Week: The Brown-tip Mangelia

Kurtziella atrostyla (Tryon, 1884) is a relatively common gastropod along both coasts of Florida. Its elongate shell may have up to 7–8 whorls, reaches only about 9 mm (about 0.36 inch), and is decorated with 8–10 axial (lengthwise) ribs and fine spiral (“across-shell”) striations. The shell is white, with reddish-brown suture (area where two whorls join) and inner part of the aperture (“opening”). #kurtziellaatrostyla #mangeliidae #spiral #axial #mageliidae

A Cool Deep-sea Octopus!

Social media was abuzz recently with this image of a beautiful deep-sea octopus photographed at 1,177 m depth by the crew of R/V Falkor of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, during their recent Visioning Coral Sea expedition off Australia. Michael Vecchione, Curator of Cephalopoda at the Smithsonian, identified it as a species of the genus Muusoctopus. I wrote about another species of Muusoctopus in the November 29, 2019 issue of this blog, briefly describing the "Octopus Garden." This is a large, imp

Shell of the Week: The Wide-coil Wentletrap

Today, I want to introduce the last species of our three-part series on open-coiling, the Wide-coil Wentletrap, Cycloscala echinaticosta (d’Orbigny, 1842), a species found in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean. In this species, the degree of coiling “openness,” or the distance from one whorl to the next, can vary wildly among individual shells. The possible advantages for these species to "wear" open-coiled shells have not yet been fully explored by malacologists. #widecoilwentletrap #cycloscal