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.
Reaching 247 mm (about 9.7 inches!), Zoila gigas (McCoy, 1867), a middle Miocene fossil species from Australia, is the largest known cowrie (family Cypraeidae), fossil or living. The shell in this photo, measuring about 7.5 inches, collected in Hamilton, Victoria, Australia, is cataloged in the Museum collection under number BMSM 39220. Read more about mollusks and their shells on the Museum web site.
Cyclostremiscus pentagonus (Gabb, 1873) is a member of the microgastropod family Tornidae that grows to be up to 2.2 mm in size. The shell is flattened, compressed, but with the spire projecting in early whorls, sculpture of microscopic growth lines. The last whorl in cross-section has a pentagonal shape. Base with two main spiral ridges. Shell color whitish-translucent, clear. The shell illustrated was collected in 2008 by former Museum collection volunteer Lois Dunnam on the East End of Sanibe
A common find on the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva, particularly after winter storms, ascidians, also known as “sea squirts” or “sea pork,” are among the most common subjects of inquiries about sea life by island visitors and Museum guests. Recently, I had a chance to pitch in with some information about the subject for the cool online blog Atlas Obscura. Read Jessica Leigh Hester’s article about “sea pork” here. (Photo of Aplidium stellatum near Destin, Florida by Rebekah Danielle Wallace, Un
The Amber Melampus, Creedonia succinea (Pfeiffer, 1854), is another local member of the Ellobiidae, a family of air-breathing snails. Shells reach about 3.5 mm (about 1.4 inch), are oval-elongate, translucent, very fragile, thin, with a glossy surface and no perceptible sculpture. The aperture is large, and typically bears two columellar plaits, or “teeth,” with the posterior (“top”) tooth twice as large as the anterior one. The shell color is variable, generally translucent amber, light-brown,
The Left-handed Melampus, Blauneria heteroclita Montagu, 1808, is an unusual gastropod found in mangrove areas of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the southeastern United States. Its sinistral (left-handed) shell reaches about 5 mm (0.2 inch), is slender, bullet-shaped, with a glossy surface (when well-preserved), covered with microscopic growth lines. The Left-handed Melampus belongs to the family Ellobiidae, a group of air-breathing (pulmonate) snails that evolved to inhabit areas very c
The elegant Antilles Oxynoe, Oxynoe antillarum Mörch, 1863, is found along shallow reef areas of the Caribbean and other parts of the tropical western Atlantic, including the Gulf of Mexico. It can grow to about 30 mm (1.2 inches) in length. Antilles Oxynoes have an internal coiled shell. The species feeds on green sea weeds in genus Caulerpa, incorporating the pigment-rich chloroplasts into their own mantle. (Chloroplasts are the sites of photosynthesis in plants.) The resulting green color he
This locally occurring species looks very similar to and could represent the Sparse Dove Snail, Costoanachis sparsa (Reeve, 1859). Shells from Southwest Florida differ ever so slightly from other varietals of this latter species, though, by details of the sculpture, including the deeply etched spiral lines below the suture (area separating two consecutive whorls). You’ll find that we cite the species in the Museum’s identification guide as “Costoanachis aff. sparsa”. The abbreviation “aff.” sta
At about 3.5 mm (0.14 inch) in diameter, Episcynia inornata (d’Orbigny, 1842) is one of the “medium-sized” members of the microgastropod family Tornidae (some species of the family measure about 1 mm in diameter only!) Its shell has a flattened trochoid (“top shell-like”) shape, is translucent, probably transparent in the living snail, very thin and fragile, with about 5 whorls. Typically, the shell periphery is garnished with tiny teeth-like projections, with thin wisps of brownish periostracum
Lithopoma phoebium (Röding, 1798) measures up to 70 mm, and has a turbinate shell that is usually wider than taller, with about 12–17 triangular spines on the shell periphery. These spines may be worn or reduced in size in some specimens. The shell base is flat, with wavy threads crossed by a few raised spiral cords. The color is variable, with light-brown and greenish hues present, and a whitish base. Although the species is common in other parts of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean region, it i
When looking in the Museum for a shell to illustrate the entry above, I found a slightly damaged White Ball Lamellaria, Lamellaria leucosphaera Schwengel, 1942 (photo). The species was described in 1942 by Jeanne E. Schwengel, in the journal The Nautilus (currently published by the Museum). Curiously enough, the holotype, or specimen observed and illustrated by Schwengel, deposited at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadephia, was collected at the bay end of Redfish Pass, the deep pass bet