As you may remember from biology class, the phylum Mollusca is a diverse group of invertebrates that includes snails, shell-less snails (slugs), bivalves, squid and octopuses.
Today, one featured mollusk is the Lettuce Sea Slug (bottom photo). It was out during the day, grazing on algae, and was only about 2 inches in length.
The other mollusk is the Flamingo Tongue (top 2 photos). The shell of these lovely little snails is generally cream colored or white, and the beautiful spots are a part of the living mantle of the snail. Unlike cowries, whose spots are on their shells, and so their spots persist after the animal dies, dead flamingo tongue shells are plain and undistinguished. Last year, flamingo tongues seemed to be everywhere. This year, they appear to be much less abundant. They are an inch or less in length.
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