Seashell Transformation Tuesday!!!!!!!!!

The good thing about Tuesday, is that it isn't Monday! Another good thing is that now because of Instagram we have this thing called #transformationtuesday. I've been wanting to do this for a while and today I had some time, so here is how seashells grow and transform!!!!!!

Now we all know that seashells come from egg casings that look like.....

 

..THIS! (Fig shell egg casing)

Or like this! (Horse Conch egg casing)

Or like this! (Whelk egg casing)

Then after the mini shells hatch out, this is what they look like!

These are Whelk babies. So teensy and cute, right? As you can see that mollusks already have their shells. The shells are made out of calcium carbonate.

And now, here is how big a whelk shell can grow! This is a Knobbed Whelk. They are right-handed mollusks and are found usually further north than the similar looking Lightning Whelk that is found more south. Also, the lightning Whelk is a left-handed shell. For my post on left-handed vs. right-handed shells click here

 

And here is the "transformation" part. From just-hatched baby whelk to this nice, 8-inch Knobbed Whelk. I found it on Assateague Island, by the way. :D

 

And now, I took some more "transformation" pictures of my other shells.

 

The Lettered Olive. This shell is pretty abundant and it lives most of its life buried in the sand, with only its siphon stretched out above, over-ground.

The Colorful Moon Snail or Gaudy Natica or Colorful Atlantic Natica. I found the bigger shell at Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Island!

The Lightning Whelk. If you compare this shell to the Knobbed Whelk above, you will see how they open up to different sides. The Lightning Whelk is one of the very few left-handed shells.

These are my beloved Horse Conchs. The baby one is just super tiny! But the juvie one isn't much larger- no more than 4 inches long, when these shells have been known to grow up to 20 inches in length! I am still searching for my grown, adult Horse Conch.

And lastly, the Turkey Wing! They can be found from North Carolina down to Bermuda and Brazil!

 

And I will end our seashell transformation Tuesday on that note!

See ya,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

Tuesday Morning on Sanibel (Sanibel Saga #7)

On Tuesday morning I went out to the beach behind our apartment on Middle Gulf Drive

 

 

On Tuesday morning, I got up early (7 am) and went out to the beach.

There's the sand and the waves.... in the morning light.

I got to witness dawn!!!!!!!!

And here's an "Ocean Dawn", beautiful......

See what a beautiful name  I gave my house? Ocean Dawn....

My first find was a live Lettered Olive. It was low tide and there were a bunch of these guys burying in the wet sand.

 

Here's another one!!!!!!!!

A Horse Conch operculum, the trapdoor of a mollusk. This definitely went into my shelling bag.

Here's some cybershelling for you guys!

I spy with my little eye an AUGER!

Do you see an Auger? ;)

 

There was this shell line in the middle of the shore, but I didn't really look closely.

However, on one of the Pen Shells, I found this Chestnut Latirus!

At first, I thought that it was a baby Horse Conch, but the shape is just not right. So I looked it up and found out that it was a Chestnut Latirus.

These guys are MUCH smaller than a Horse Conch ( max. length being 2.2 in.) They live in the water, but prefer the reefs, whereas Horse Conch prefer the sand.

They also feed on barnacles and worms.

Here's a Skate Egg, or Mermaid's Purse in the wrack line.

Here's the wrack line itself...lots of egg casings and pen shells.

Horse Conch Egg Casings, Lightning Conch Egg Casings, Skate Egg...

A Sea Urchin!!!!!!!! This guy joined the Horse Conch operculum in my shelling bag, because he was obviously dead and, I just like Sea Urchins.

A Fig Egg Casing.... These are so cool! Or maybe, I'm just used to the other types of egg casings, but I don't see this type as often. :)

The morning was perfect!!!!!!!!!!

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn!!!!!!!!! :D

 

P.S. See, it doesn't always take me long to write a new post ;P

 

Beach Bling on Sanibel (Part 2 of My Shelldventure on Sanibel)

And I'm back with some more story time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right now, I'm gonna show you lots of different stuff (shells and beach bling) that you can find on the beach on Sanibel Island.

This here, is a Saw-toothed Pen Shell. I've talked about them before. These monsters ( 8-12 in) can be found all over the beach and in the water, so after a few days you don't notice them anymore, unless you're looking threw them to see if a shell got stuck in side. That's how I found one of my baby True Tulips!!!

Next up a Horse Conch Egg Case- lots of egg casings can be found on the beaches on Sanibel. These can be distinguished due to the fact that they are not like a string or garland, but more like a bag, a saddle bag, in fact ;)

Another type of egg casing is the Lightning Whelk egg casings. You can see how these resemble garlands unlike the Horse Conch egg casing above.

Moving on to shells- this is a Yellow Prickly Cockle. You can see how its yellow color gave the shell its name. About the prickles, you can see little spines on the shell's ribs when you look closer. I'm sorry this photo doesn't show the shell up close.

Just a portion of the shell line. This is what miles and miles of shore can be like and you have to plod slowly along in order to find a great shell. But when you find it- Shellcess!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Sea Urchin!!!!!!!! I absolutely LOOOOVE these echinoderms, if you don't already know. This guy is obviously dead, and a little broken on top, but I still took him ( he was my first full sea urchin in all time, too!)

Some more egg casings- I thought that these belonged to the True Tulip, but they don't. If you do know what they are, please tell me in the comments below!!!!! The egg casings were attached to the inside of a Saw-toothed Pen Shell.

An Atlantic Calico Scallop- there were so many of these guys too. But I have a very distinct taste for the orange scallops, so I didn't really pick up any of the pink or purple ones. :D

 

Hiding under a Saw-toothed Pen Shell, I found a cool little piece of Variable Worm Shells. I love these cute tube clusters!

An egg casing on an egg casing!!!!! The tiny egg casings are those of a True Tulip and the larger ones are those of a Lightning Whelk.

When I looked closer at the picture on my phone, I saw that the True Tulip egg capsules were still closed and held teeny tiny baby True Tulips- shelldorable!!!!!

 

And that's a look at some of the awesome things that wash up on Sanibel!!!!!

 

See ya soon!!!!!!

Lava of Ocean Dawn :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