"Shellart"

So hi guys.........
I promised you a Marginella post, but I think that all the ones that I have are the same species.

I found them all on Oak Island, NC and they sure look like Atlantic Marginellas. These itsy-bitsy shells are mostly scavengers. Also, they get their name from their wide margin (or aperature lip).
 And here's another photo of these cuties....

 

And now I'd like ot show you the cool stuff that I made a few weeks ago.

I got a glue gun and immediately made a few projects.

 

Here's a flower pot for my mom for March 8, International Woman's Day.

There are pieces of broken pen shells around the rim and full shells toward the bottom.

 

And here it is but with flowers in it.

After glueing on all the shells a ran into the woods in my backyard found some snowdrops ( the first flowers of the year!) and some other greenery and put it in the pot.

 

This is how the pot looked when I presented it (ooh fancy word!!!) to my mom.

 

And then I made a "shell plaque". I just played aroudna nd tried to make a design.

These are left over/ broken shells that I wanted to return to the beach anyways.

 

Well that's all!!!

Hope that you enjoyed my "shellart" :)

 

See ya soon,

Yaroshelllava :D

March Madness with (a few) mini "M" shells and others

 

Hi guys!

As you can see, I am trying my best to not leave y'all hanging and waiting for my next post.

(By the way, don't y'all think that "y'all" is such a cool word? ;) )

 

 

And without more ado,

I introduce a Milk Moonsnail to you!!!!

 

This mini shell is adorable and unfortunately, I only have one specimen which I found in Fort Lauderdale, FL in Nov, 2012.

Marginellas!!!

 Another "M" shell for you! Hmmmmm..... sounds like some March Madness to me...

 

These Marginellas might be several different species, so in my next post I'll look into that and show you all of them closer. :D

 

The Shiny Atlantic Auger. Once again, I found these in Fort Lauderdale.

 Spiny Slippershell. These guys are hermaphroditic. This means that they can switch genders. In fact, Slippershells begin their lives as males and then, in response to environmental stimuli, transform into females.

Button Shells are ADORABLE! These minis feed on detritus and algae. Also, the young hatch as a miniature version of the parent, not as free-swimming larvae.

 

So that's all the cuteness for today!

 

See ya later,

Yaroshelllava :D

Lots of Adorableness and Shell Babies: Thursday Throwbacks

So since its Thursday, I decided to go straight to the "Throwbacks". No need to switch it up like I did on Tuesday. :D

More photos of wonderful Florida....

Some egg capsule on a Pen Shell. I'm guessing that they are Horse Conch egg casings, but now really sure.

 

 

 Now here are two shell Egg Casings: the one on the left are definitely from a  Lightning Whelk and the one on the right are, for sure, those of a Horse Conch. 

A cute Sea Squirt.

 

 An even more adorable Sea Star, probably a baby Nine-Armed Sea Star.

You can see the nine arms.

 

Well, that's some of the cuteness that I saw on my trip last year.

 

See ya later,

Lava of Ocean Dawn or Yaroshellava (Yaro"shell"lava)

 

P.S. Yaroshelllava- a name I came up with today to demonstrate my love for shells.

And now a challenge: come up with your own shell name, don't be shy. :D

 



Tuesday Throwbacks

Hi guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so sorry that I haven't written for the last coupe of weeks!!!!!!!!!!
Really sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!
What with school and extracurricular activities, I just haven't had the time.
But here's a nice post to (sort of) make up for it.

So for today, I decided to switch things up a bit and make it "Throwback Tuesday" instead of "Thursday".
And I'm going to show you more photos from March of last year at Sanibel, FL

 

 

This is a skate egg. Skates are related to sharks, they are both from the class Chondrichthys and are related to other fish with skeletons of cartilage, like themselves. 

Skate eggs are also called "mermaids purses" which I always thought was a cute name. :D

 

 A Lettered Olive!!!!!!!!!! I love these shells. This one, as you can see, was alive so I just left it to go on its own merry way.
Over the years I have found quite a few of these shell, but have given them away to friends and family. I found this out, because a few days ago, I was going over my shell collection and realized that I had maybe only two or three Lettered Olives!!!
OH NO!!!! I'm definitely gonna be on the look out for these when I next go to the beach.

                                             A Sand Dollar. Not sure what species though.

                                                                     
                                                         This here, a Lightning Whelk.
                                                              And how can you tell?
                               That's right! By the fact that the shells opening is to the left side.
             I hope that you remember, from one of my previous posts, what right-handed and left-                                                               handed shells are. :D

A Lightning Whelk shell with a Hermit Crab inside.

 

 And finally, a Lined Sea Star. Sea Stars have many, many tiny tube feet on their undersides that help them move. The tube feet are helped by the star's water-vascular system that provides hydraulic pressure. On the picture here, you can see the several tracks that the sea star left on the sand.
There were lots and lots of these cute Echinoderms on the beaches at low tide.

 

Well, as you mighta guessed, I gotta go ( again)! :D

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

Fantasizing about Florida.

Last year, March 2013, my family and I went to Sanibel Island, FL for a week of vacation.
Sanibel Island is the #1 spot for shelling in the US! Now you can see why I desperately wanted to go there.
So, after several years of trying to persuade my parents to take us there, they agreed.
That week in March was heavenly!
I loved the island, the beaches, the biking trails and most importantly....
THE SHELLS!!!!!
Here's a glimpse of some of the shells that I collected:

You can see the HUGE Saw-toothed Pen Shell, the Atlantic Giant Cockles, the Whelks and the Banded Tulips.

The rest of the shells I just kind of heaped there because I'm not really neat... ;D

Anyway, this was my second time in Florida because in November 2012 we had gone to Fort Lauderdale.

And now!!!!!! We're going to Sanibel AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Yep, in a little over a month I'll be on the darling island again.

I can't wait!

But in the mean time, I want to show you guys some of my pictures from last year....

 

This guy here is a live Florida Fighting Conch. The reason for their name is their pretty aggressive personality. When I was holding this guy he kept hitting me with his foot and claw-like operculum (trap-door, you can see it at the bottom of the picture). But I managed to get this cute photo of him before returning him to the water. :D

 

Now this guy here is burrowing into the sand, but I don't think he ever got any further. Out of the hundreds of live Florida Fighting Conchs that were strewn on the beach at low tide, lots of them were in the position that you see here.

 

Next is the Florida Horse Conch. This, here shell is the largest gastropod in North America and the second largest ( after the Australian Trumpet) in the world. This shell has been on my "To Find" list ever since I first saw it in a shell book, but I only got to find one last year.

But it was alive, so I put it back in the water.

On Sanibel Island it's illegal to take home any live shell, sea urchin, sand dollar or sea star. But even if it was legal, I would have never taken this guy home.

I 'd much rather it stay alive.

So this year I'm hoping for a nice big empty Horse Conch to take home.

 

 

                                             This is another picture of the same shell. Right after I took this photo, the Conch spit water at my camera. Thankfully, the camera was fine. Horse Conchs hunt on other large gastropods such as Tulip Shells and Lightning Whelks. They get their prey by grabbing the other mollusks operculum and holding it tightly while eating.

 

Well that's it for today. I gotta go now.

But don't be sad, there will definitely be more posts on Sanibel Island in the next few days.

 

See ya soon!

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

 

Snow Day Shells

So today we had no school!!!!!!!!!!
YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I spent the day relaxing at home and going sledding with my friends.
While at home, I decided to do some more shell sorting, you all saw the state of my collection.
And lo and behold, I did manage to sort out a few more shells. Here they are:....

The Corrugate Jewel Box. I don't have enough info on this shell yet....

The Cayenne Keyhole Limpet.

The reason that they are called "keyhole" limpets is because the holes in the shells are shaped like keyholes.

And the Striped Falselimpet.

Limpets are gastropods that live on rocks in the tidal zone. They can move with the help of their foot and feed on algae with their tongue-like radula. The hole in the top of their shells allows the limpets to pass exhaust from their lungs, while falselimpets breathe air and are found above the tide.

 

The Antillean Nerite. As you can see it lacks "teeth" on its inner lip. This helped me distinguish it from the next shell, a Four-toothed Nerite. It is also called the Lightning Nerite. This shell can be fond in brackish water in sheltered areas.

Finally, the Four-toothed Nerite!(or Variegated Nerite)!

I know this picture isn't the best, in reality it's much easier to see this species four "teeth" on its inner left. But you can still see them if you look at the left image.

This mollusk is commonly found with the Bleeding Tooth in areas of high wave action, on expose rocks. It lays its eggs on the same rocks in dome-shaped capsules.

 

Well that's it!

See ya soon!
Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

The Shell Sorting Hat!

So, my second post for today: Shell ID and sorting.
The Shell Sorting Hat ( a reference to Harry Potter!!!) are my new shell ID books.
I decided to sort out some of my identityless (is that even word?) shells.
Here is half of my shell collection in its usual disarray:

As you can see its not that neat.

Here is one of my more neat display cases made out of an old candy box. :D CREATIVITY!!!!

 

Some more shells, some sorted, some not.

Here are two containers of my unsorted, unidentified shells!

Let's get started!!!

So finally I discovered what these two were: Common Dove Shells! They were about 3/4 of an inch long. You can tell that these are the Common Dove Shell because of the little teeth on its lip ( on the right picture).

Next, the Giant Coquina Clam, or Great False Coquina, or Giant False Coquina.

Lots of names. These two were about 1.5 inches long and as you can see, look a lot like the common Variable Coquina.

The Antillean Lima!!! Not sure where I found these, but I was really glad to finally find out what they were.

The American Carrier Shell. We already met before, but I just found a separate little box for it today. :D

And the Nutmeg. This is the only specimen of this tiny shell that I have found so fat. It's not in the best condition, but I hope to find more this year. This guy was found on Sanibel Island in March 2013. These mollusks feed on soft-bodied animals buried in the sand.

 

Well that's it for today. Look for more shell sorting and ID post in the future!

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

Lava Turns 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi guys!!!!
Yes, yesterday, February 28th, was my 16th birthday!

 

 



It was perfect!
I got cards and brownies from my friends and a cake and a great present from my parents.

I got, several shell identification books and a horse show( I mean I get to participate in a horse show that is tomorrow!!!!!!!!! So excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So yeah, this is my short post about my birthday. I really enjoyed it and am now looking forward to being 16!

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn:)