'Mazing Molluscs.

So Etel's obsession has been beachcombing to find shells. After the huge waves of the past week, we went to a beach known locally as a good place to find shells, and they were right. We spent 4 hours picking through a part of the beach no larger than my front yard. Each new wave that crashed on shore brought new treasures. Now you have to realize that most of the shells in these pictures are small, 0.5-1.5" in size.

These are cone shells. A carnivorous snail, they have venom to immobilize their prey of worms, other molluscs, and small fish. If you see one out in the water you have to be very careful not to just pick it up since it can reach around and poison you, some species can be deadly.


The diversity and beauty of these shells cannot be exaggerated. Follow this link to see the amazing worldwide diversity in these shells. Obviously God had a creative orgy when she specially created each and every one of these species by hand.

These are rock shells, two different species. The black bumpy ones are grape drupes and the brown bumpy ones are mulberry drupes. Notice the purple color lining the aperture of the shell.  

These are cowries. It has been documented that in the 14th century the Chinese used cowries as currency. It is easy to see how the diversity and beauty of these shells would make it easy to adapt them to a currency - particularly when you think about the rare ones becoming very valuable and the impossibility of creating counterfeit versions. Maybe we should return to using shells as a form of currency.

These are auger shells. It is amazing how diverse the color patterns are - each unique color pattern represents a separate species. They eat polychaetes - sand worms.