Jewel Boxes and Kitten's Paws

I've been sorting through my shell collection lately and realizing how similar many shells are. So here's another post with shell comparisons.

Here are my Jewel Boxes:

First is the Florida Spiny Jewel Box. These mollusks attach themselves to shells, corals and pebbles when young, but eventually become free and just lie on the sea floor. I've found these shells in North Carolina and both coasts of Florida.

Next is the Corrugate Jewel Box- it looks kinda like a deformed Kitten's Paw. I've found all my Corrugate Jewel Boxes on Sanibel.

And here is the Kitten's Paw! These little shells are scallops and they are commonly found in Florida beaches due to their toughness. However. Their left valves are most commonly found because the right valve shells remain attached to rocks and rubble.

And here's a comparison between the Corrugate Jewel Box (left) and Kitten's Paw (right). As you can see, both shells are approximately the same size and reddish-orange and white coloring. However, the Kitten's Paw has several well defined ridges that sorta look like fingers while the Corrugate Jewel Box is just a shapeless blob.

Finally, here is the beautiful and delicate Leafy Jewel Box. These shells are generally yellow, but can also be found in orange and lavender colors.

And here is a comparison of al four shells (from left to right): Leafy Jewel Box, Corrugate Jewel Box, Kitten's Paw and Florida Spiny Jewel Box. The Florida Spiny Jewel Box is the biggest and can be told apart by its spikes. The other ones are about the same size, but vary either in color or shape.

I hope that was helpful and that you'll dive into your shell collection right now to sort your Jewel Boxes!

Have fun,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :)

How I Store My Shells

Shelling is fun an exciting and it's hard to control yourself whilst collecting shells. But, all of a sudden, your vacation is over and you're sitting at home with a bag or two of shells that need to be sorted and stored somehow. 

Everyone's been there! So in case any of you are struggling right now or have struggled with finding the containers for your shells, I've decided to show you what containers I use to sort and store my shells!

Here's my biggest shell box. I got it at AC Moore and I think that it's supposed to be used for beads or other small things. I like this box because you can move the little plastic walls around to make the compartments what ever size you need them to be. As you can see in the picture above, my Florida Fighting Conchs take up more room than my Alternate Tellins or Augers.

I got this little shell with removable containers at Walmart. The boxes are sturdy and will protect your fragile shells like False Angel Wings and beach beach bling like Sea Urchins. They have lids that are pretty well secured.

This is my box for my minis. I got it at AC Moore, too and it's definitely a box to hold beads. It has two big boxes (in the middle) and around 40 medium boxes (around the sides) and finally 20 tiny boxes (the ones closest to the front). It's a good sturdy case, but it can be a little hard to close the little containers sometimes.

Here's an Identification Box that I made out of an old Candy box! I cut a hole in the top of the box and taped a page protector onto it so that I could look at my shells. This is a good idea for display.

Another candy box turned into a sorting box. I use this guy to store my sharks teeth, sting ray plates and other fossils.

And finally, if you don't have any boxes, then you can always resort to the standard Ziploc bags as I sometimes do.

Drawer #1

Drawer #2

Now that you're done sorting your shells, you can stack them in a drawer, like I did above!

Happy shell sorting everyone!

See you soon,

Yaroshelllava :)

P.S. Exactly one month til I'm on Sanibel again, can't wait! Stay warm everyone! 😊

Scallop Sorting Sunday

My birthday yesterday was perfect, turning 17 was just fabulous! However, do the snowy/icy weather today my horse show was cancelled. So I'm staying at home and sorting my scallops right now!

Here are all my different scallops- I'm still not done sorting them, but after finding specimens of four different species today, I decided to take a break and write a blog post!

Here are some Atlantic Bay Scallops! For this species the paler, lighter colored valve is the lower valve. There are two subspecies, one that Los found from Maryland to western Florida and another that is found from Louisiana to Mexico. Now I'm gonna have to go through and see if I can separate the two subspecies! 😳 While young specimens can be pretty colorful, older ones are more drab.

Next is the Sentis or Scaly scallop, as far as I know these are two names for the same species. Scaly scallops love attached to rubble at pretty shallow or medium depths.

There are so many Atlantic Calico Scallops on Sanibel Island that you stop noticing their bright, colorful shells! 

Here's a comparison of the Atlantic Calico Scallop (top) to the Atlantic Bay Scallop (bottom). You can easily, or not so easily 😉, tell them apart because the Bay Scallop has more distinct ridges than the Calico Scallop.

Finally, here is the Rough Scallop. Most specimens of this mollusk are bright colors- yellow, orange, red, but some can be purple.

Here's a closeup of one of the Rough Scallops so that you can see the tiny "scale-like" projections that give the shell its rough texture and name.

And here is a comparison of all the four species of scallops that I have identified so far- Atlantic Bay Scallop (top left), Atlantic Calico Scallop (top right), Sentis or Scaly Scallop (bottom left) and Rough Scallop (bottom right).

And that's all for today sheller friends! See ya soon,

Yaroshelllava 😄