Seashells
Seashells in our collection
Seashells are more than just a pretty shell. They are the remaining housing or home of an aquatic mollusk. They house and protect these animals with some pretty amazing range of adaptations. We include a diverse range of seashells in our collections. Below are just some of these mollusks that are present in our collection to give you better insight and appreciation for the amazing creatures they came from.
Neverita duplicata
Sharks Eye
This mollusk is a gastropod in the moon snail family. They are found in very shallow water and also depths up to 190ft. They mainly live under the sand and actively hunt other mollusks. While they are moving and hunting their inner body expands, covering most or all of its shell by inflating water into its cavity. When threatened it expels the water and shrinks back into its shell, closing a trap door (operculum) to protect itself. It actively hunts other mollusks, mainly feeding on a diet of bivalves (scallops and clams). They latch onto prey, releasing an acid that softens the shell so they can drill into the shell with their radula (tongue) and release a digestive enzyme that will break down their prey so they are easily slurped out.
Dinocardium robustum
Giant Atlantic Cockle
This mollusk is one of the largest shallow-water bivalves found in the Gulf of Mexico. It can reach a size of 6 inches from edge to edge. They are commonly found in the coastal waters from Virginia to Northern Florida, to Texas. While they are most commonly found in shallow waters, they are found up to depths of 100ft. They are filter feeders, using their siphon to filter plankton and detritus out of the ocean waters, and can use their muscular foot to propel themselves away from predators. They are sometimes referred to as a Great Heart Cockle because when they are intact their shells make the shape of a heart, and adults are similar in size to a human heart.
Busycon perversum
Lightning Whelk
This is a special mollusk when it comes to outward appearance. Most seashells have a clockwise spiral, but lightning whelks have a counterclockwise spiral, earning them the name of “left-handed” shells. This has earned them a lot of attention and some Native American tribes used them for religious ceremonies, believing their “left-handed” spiral made them more sacred. They are commonly found in the coastal waters from North Carolina to Texas and are the official Texas state shell. They are a gastropod that grows to 2.5-16in and besides their “left-handed” shell are identified by their off-white to tan or gray shell with narrow brown “lighting” streaks from the top of the shell to the bottom. They prey on bivalves including oysters, clams, and scallops, by using the edge of their shell as a type of crowbar to pry it open. If this doesn’t work they grind their shell against their prey until they make a hole big enough for their radula (tongue).
Oviva Sayana
Lettered Olive
This mollusk is the official state shell of South Carolina. They are a type of gastropod that is characterized by its chestnut brown markings that look vaguely like letters of the alphabet. They grow up to 2 1/2 in and are found in very shallow waters up to 20ft. They lack the “trap door” (operculum”) that other species have but are remarkably fast moving, using their plow-like foot to dig into soft sand. They commonly feed on coquina and other smooth surfaced small clams, aquatic worms, crustaceans, and other marine life. They lay 20-50 eggs in the sand and live as planktonic lifeforms for a week before developing their shell.
Seashells
Collected Ethically and Humanely
The international seashell trade goes back thousands of years, but the alarming rates of collection, and the means of that collection are critically harmful to the marine world. In many commercial industries mollusks are collected alive and then forcefully removed by scraping, bleaching, or acid treatment to name a few methods. At Staghorn Jewelry we make it a point to only collect seashells that have washed ashore and do not contain any living animals. We hand collect all seashells from local beaches along the Gulf of Mexico so we can guarantee that they were collected ethically, and no animals were harmed.