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These are broken tops off of two very fresh Florida Fighting Conchs. Some creature ate these -- I wonder who did it?
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These are broken tops off of two very fresh Florida Fighting Conchs. Some creature ate these -- I wonder who did it?
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This shell is interesting because you can see the scar where the animal managed to survive a serious predation attempt, and then was able to repair the shell and carry on with its life. It is also interesting because the shell had small knobs on the shoulder of the body whorl before the predation attempt, but became smooth on the shoulder after the predation attempt.
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The paler shell has no knobs on the shoulder of the whorl, whereas the darker shell has knobs. The knobless variety is less common, but it is far from rare. I seem to find more of the knobless ones in certain locations, so maybe it is a genetic thing that is frequent within certain populations.
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The paler shell has no knobs on the shoulder of the whorl, whereas the darker shell has knobs. The knobless variety is less common, but it is far from rare. I seem to find more of the knobless ones in certain locations, so maybe it is a genetic thing that is frequent within certain populations.
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The paler shell has no knobs on the shoulder of the whorl, whereas the darker shell has knobs. The knobless variety is less common, but it is far from rare. I seem to find more of the knobless ones in certain locations, so maybe it is a genetic thing that is frequent within certain populations.
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Two small dark juveniles. They look very different from the adults because they are very high-spired and they do not have the flared lip like the adults do. These two are quite dark in color. The shell of the Florida Fighting Conch is very variable in color: it can be pure white, cream, yellow, reddish, through to dark brown, and it can be a plain solid color, or have one dark or light band, and it can even have a zig-zag pattern.
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Two small dark juveniles. They look very different from the adults because they are very high-spired and they do not have the flared lip like the adults do. These two are quite dark in color. The shell of the Florida Fighting Conch is very variable in color: it can be pure white, cream, yellow, reddish, through to dark brown, and it can be a plain solid color, or have one dark or light band, and it can even have a zig-zag pattern.
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A live one -- you can see the operculum.
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The newly risen sun was catching the apex of the shell with slight reddish light.
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The newly risen sun was catching the apex of the shell with slight reddish light.
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The newly risen sun was catching the apex of the shell with slight reddish light.
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"This one had dug himself or herself up out of the sand. They do this when they are uncovered by a very low tide, instead of just staying put, partially buried, in what I would consider to be a ""sensible"" fashion! I don't know why, but they seem to dig out and position themselves as if they actually want to have the air or the light touch their bodies? Do they need the oxygen on their gill? If not, then what the heck is going on? Very mysterious behaviour! I wrote a paper about it a few years ago: Hewitt Susan J. 2013a, Some observations on the behavior of Strombus alatus (Gastropoda, Strombidae) on Sanibel Island, Lee County, Florida, The Festivus XLV (1) 6â8"
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I photographed these two shells to show how amazing the differences can be between the shell of one of these and another's shell, not only in the color and patterning, or lack of patterning, but also in the degree of knobbiness or lack of knobs on the shoulder of the whorls.
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An operculum from a fighting conch.
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An operculum from a fighting conch.
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Found in Ibis Canal of the mangrove swamps at Ponce De Leon Park
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beach had a lot of them near the incoming waves that day.
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