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

My Late Turkey Day Post

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!
I didn't post yesterday because I was with my family nad friedns eating a ton of good food. And I'm sure all of you guys were doing the same thing.
But no, I want to do my "Turkey Day " post.

I will start by showing you some Turkey Wings!!!!

 

The generic Thanksgiving shell! Turkey Wings are also called Zebra Arks. In the Caribbean thousands of tons of these beautiful mollusks are harvested to be canned and eaten each year. This is not goo at all (obviously)! Especially because Turkey Wings are very important in their ecosystems and food webs as prey, plankton feeders and substrate for benthic animals.

 

And this here is the Mossy Ark. Looks almost identical to the Turkey Wing, right? But, they are two different shells, even if they do belong to the same genus: Arca.

 

And here are the two shells side by side. Mossy Arks on the left, Turkey Wings on the right. From the front, you can see how different these shells look in terms of coloring. The Turkey Wing has distinct, precise brown and white stripes. The Mossy Ark, on the other hand, is often just a mottled whitish brown.

 

And now, from the back. This might be a bit hard to see, but another way to tell the shells apart is by looking at the top rim of their shells. The Mossy Arks (on the right again) have a very curvy rim- compromised of two curves. The top rim of the Turkey Wings, however, is pretty straight.

 

And now, I wanted to show the distinctions between two different shells.

 

I always thought that this was a regular Common Atlantic Auger, just a freak one. However, it is a Gray Atlantic Auger. These mollusks are active hunters and they prey on worms. They can slide really fast (for a snail, :D ) on their foot. When they reach a worm they lunge and stab it with its poisonous, radular tooth.

 

And now this is a Common American Auger. They are hunters and prey on worms too.

And now for a comparison of the two species...

 

The Common American Auger (left) and Gray Atlantic Auger (right). You can see that the Gray Atlantic Auger is much smoother, without the many small ridges that the Common American Auger has.

 

Finally the Common American Auger is lighter colored. It is orange, yellow and chestnut, while the Gray Atlantic Auger is darker brown and slightly purple.

 

Well, that's it for today guys! Gotta go!

See y'all,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D