Florida Day 7

01/03/19

On our last full day we made a return to Barefoot Beach and Jimmy Truluck.

We were there to do a proper beach combing session but beforehand we had a talk about all the different types of shells we might be able to find and were given some interesting facts about particular creatures.

The Florida Horse Conch is the State shell. It actually belongs to the tulip family and can grow up to 2ft long. They live about 25 years.

The alphabet cone has venom that’s stronger than morphine, they harpoon their food.

Within the Mollusc group there are; Gastropods (the largest), Bivalves (2-shelled), Cephalopods and Tusk Shells (bury themselves in sediment).

The fighting conch is the only true conch. Its called so because it has a failing foot. All other conchs are carnivores.

Organisms can be left or right-handed. The way to tell is when looking at it front on its what side the opening is on.

The best way to clean a mollusc out of a shell is to freeze it and then pull it out once its thawed.

Lettered olives are naturally shiny as they wrap their mantle around the shell

Sea beans are essentially seeds/fruits that are designed to be able to withstand journeys across bodies of water and still be able to grow afterwards. One example is the Columbus bean that comes from the Monkey Ladder Vine.

After our talk we went and headed out to the beach, unfortunately I didn’t manage to pick up anything exciting but it was good fun.