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 Northern Lion Paw

Nodipecten fragosus (Conrad, 1849), is one of the iconic species included in the “most desirable” list of local collectors. In the same way as the famous Junonia, Lion Paws are not uncommon in deeper water offshore, but perfect shells are almost impossible to find in local beaches. The species common name alludes to certain resemblance to a lion’s “hand,” and the qualifier “Northern” distinguishes the North American species from its tropical western Atlantic counterpart, the Southern Lion Paw,

Tucker Abbott’s “Seashells” in Braille!

Last September 28 marked the 100th birthday of the Museum’s Founding Director, Robert Tucker Abbott. Tucker Abbott was certainly the most prolific author of shell and mollusk-related books that ever lived, having published more than 30 books on the subject. Some of his most popular works such as Seashells of the World (1962) and Kingdom of Seashells (1972) have been in print since their original publication and were translated into many languages. Tucker Abbott’s daughter Cynthia Sullivan rec

The Flamboyant Cuttle

Metasepia pfefferi (Hoyle, 1885) is a cuttlefish, or cuttle, found in the eastern Indian and southwestern Pacific oceans. It lives in shallow water from 3 to 85 meters (about 10 to 280 feet) in depth. Cuttles are cephalopod mollusks that have eight arms and two tentacles. As in other cephalopods, one of the arms in male cuttles, called the hectocotylus, is modified to deliver sperm to the female. The arms aid in swimming, but can also be used by the Flamboyant Cuttle to “walk” upright on the bot

Shell of the Week: The White Triphora

Sagenotriphora candidula Rolán & Lee, 2008 is a Floridian species of the family Triphoridae, a group of microgastropod mollusks known to inhabit sponge colonies. Triphorids are almost always left-handed. The 5-mm (about 0.2 inch) White Triphora is characterized by its pure white color and a multispiral (many-whorled), translucent-brown protoconch (larval shell), with a reticulated sculpture on its first whorl. Other features of shell and radula also distinguish this species from its closest rela

Shell of the Week: The Glossy Vitrinella

Teinostoma obtectum Pilsbry & McGinty, 1945 is another member of a highly diverse family of micromollusks, the Tornidae. The Glossy Vitrinella reaches about 2.2 mm (about 0.09 inch) in diameter, and its shell is strongly depressed (flattened), with the spire (the top) covered with a glass-like glaze. The shell outline is rounded, and the base shows a prominent callus. Shell color is white. The illustrated shell was collected in 1996 on Sanibel, and later identified by Harry G. Lee. #tornidae #gl

Communal Spawning in Cone Snails

Florida Cones, Conus anabathrum Crosse, 1865, and other species of cone snails are known to perform group spawning. Also known as communal spawning, the phenomenon, which is not restricted to mollusks, occurs when a large number of female individuals lay their eggs or egg capsules at the same time, in the same spot. One of the possible advantages of group spawning is that the concentration of a large number of eggs, larvae, or juveniles in a small area may overwhelm local predators. This may tra

Mighty, the Horse Conch

At a maximum size of about 60 cm (24 inches), the Horse Conch, Triplofusus giganteus (Kiener, 1840), is the largest marine snail living in the Atlantic Ocean. Horse Conchs are known to feed on a number of other mollusks, including Lightning Whelks, Tulips, Fighting Conchs, large clams, and others. In this great photo by Amy Tripp, taken at low tide near Kice Island, Florida, a Horse Conch (let’s call it “Mighty”!) is about to pounce on a stranded Lightning Whelk. The Horse Conch’s siphon can be

Speckled Crab and the Seven Olives

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is an amazing picture worth? A million? Consider, for instance, this terrific photo of seven Lettered Olives, Americoliva sayana (Ravenel, 1834), feeding on the remains of a Speckled Swimming Crab, Arenaeus cribrarius (Lamarck, 1818). The capture leaves no room for doubt as to what was happening: It reminds me of a “clean-up crew” of vultures around roadkill, or hyenas feasting on an antelope carcass. Lettered Olives are known to prey on wor

Shell of the Week: The Keeled-base Vitrinella

Teinostoma carinicallus Pilsbry & McGinty, 1946 is one the most distinctive among the local species of vitrinellas (family Tornidae). Its shell, which rarely reaches 3 mm (0.12 inch) in diameter, is delicate, smooth, with a low spire. The last whorl is flat, but the shell periphery is rounded. A concave callus (the plug-like structure on the shell base) completely closes the shell umbilicus. The most distinctive feature in the shell of this species is the presence of a narrow keel bordering the

The Amazing Excalibur Snail

When describing newly discovered species, researchers may choose to name them after people or places, features of the animal (or shell), or to select a term that is reminiscent of a shape or an object, among other alternatives. Gyraxis excalibur is an unusually shaped land snail cleverly named after the sword of King Arthur. The small (reaching only 17 mm, or about 0.7 inch) but very elongate species was first described by G. Thomas (“Tom”) Watters from the Museum of Biological Diversity, Ohio S