Found a little shell which looked cut in half and added it to my collection. It was among the millions of shells piled along an island beach.
I haven’t been boating, fishing or beach-combing for a while. Sometimes life gets in the way of those things. Also, it’s been cool here in Florida – which I love, but my son with the boat thinks 60 degrees is “freezing”.
Also, I share my car with my youngest son and don’t have the freedom to up and go whenever I want. He is usually gone to work. So traveling to the beach has to wait.
Last time we were out fishing (not catching much, by the way) I took some photos along one of my favorite island beaches. I always end up with more photos than I use on my blog, so this is a good time to go back and find the good ones to share.
The shells were piled up from the tide, which made a cool little berm. I bent down to get a shell group photo. After I took the picture, I noticed the shell that was cut in half. Among all the little clams and broken bits, this spiral showing the inside whorls was a pretty cool find.
Once again I am reminded to look closely at what is beneath my feet on the beach.
I’ve been trying to figure out what type of gastropod it is. My best guess is a crown conch. It’s so small that I really don’t know, and juvenile shells can look vastly different that big shells. But this one has tiny bumps, which could have eventually turned into the spikes you see on a King’s Crown, also known as a Crown Conch.
Another reason I chose the Crown shell as the ID is that I see lots of them in this area. They are the perfect home for hermit crabs is seems. So it makes sense that this little one would be that type.
Pass it on
sounds to me that you look pretty closely
It’s too easy to miss the little bits of nature all around us. I’m sure your area has interesting beaches and tidal pools.
So many people fail to look down when outside; while I am a sky watcher when roaming a beach I spend more time looking at the surface around me. There’s so much to see! I love the small tidal pools which seem to just team with life. Even up here when I visit the coastal areas in the Kenai Peninsula I always take time to roam the often rocky coasts in search of said tidal pools.
When I find something so tiny and interesting I wonder at how much I am missing by not looking closely enough.
Skeleton shell… great choice of wording. I had a hard time figuring out what to call this one. It’s so cool to get a look inside the home of a snail.
Love “skeleton” shells. I have one small like this although it is a different type of shell. It looks like a spiral staircase or something from a Salvador Dali surrealist painting.
I love the sculptured shape of broken shells