Hemipolygona carinifera reaches 65 mm (approximately 2.6 inches). The high-spired shell has a typical sculpture of strong axial ribs crossed by keel-like spiral ridges. The shell color is usually pale yellow to cream, sometimes with darker interspaces between the axial ridges. Hemipolygona carinifera is found in moderately deep water from eastern Florida sou...

A couple of weeks ago our Aquarist Claire D’Agostino brought to me a small Petri dish with a couple of very small snails in seawater for identification. Claire and Senior Aquarist Jake Chase found the snails while cleaning new animal additions behind the scenes for “TK-1”, the magnificent tropical coral reef aquarium in our Living Gallery of Mollusks. TK-1 displays assorted s...

A couple of weeks ago, Jane Kintzi brought a complete shell (two articulated valves) of an Atlantic Giant Cockle (Dinocardium robustum) found this month on Sanibel. One of the valves of the cockle was much shorter than the other. The shell margin on that shorter valve is perfect, with no jagged edges. We had seen a similar situation on shells of Tiger Lucines (Co...

Haminoea antillarum (d’Orbigny, 1841), has a very thin, globose, and glass-like shell. Live animals can be seen, sometimes in larger numbers, in the bays and protected seagrass flats of Southwest Florida, in particular during the Spring. Live Antilles Glassy Bubbles completely envelop their shells with their bodies.