Sunday, March 4, 2012

Sea snails




Sea snails are fairly numerous down here, but not very well represented in the guide to Reef Creature Identification that we brought with us.  So, I can't even guess which species these photos represent.

Although we occasionally encounter various species of snails underwater, we often don't see much more of them than their shells (like the top photo). 

The bottom 2 photos were taken this morning, of a snail that was moving along the sand almost like a nudibranch or sea slug would move, except it was carrying a shell on top of it.  Attached to the foot of this snail, you can see a hard, brown, oval-shaped disc.  This is the operculum.  When the snail withdraws into its shell, the operculum covers the opening to the shell (something like closing a door).

Pardon the over-exposed nature of these photos, I tried everything that I could think of to reduce the light level, but forgot to shut off my flash.

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