#spisula

[letmeinimafairy]

A new scene, flooded ruins of amphitheatre. Eh, overdid it with the waves. Carved shell fragments, stone, quartz sand and resin in a spisula shell.

[morphons]

Beach finds from Par Sands and Polkerris Beach, Cornwall. 29 November 2019.

12 surf clam (Spisula solida) halves.

1 hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) half – not confident with this id.

2 rayed artemis (Dosinia exoleta) halves.

5 banded venus (Clausinella fasciata) halves.

1 thin tellin (Tellina tenuis) pair.

1 blue rayed limpet (Patella pellucida).

1 striped venus (Chamelea gallina) pair, + 5 halves.

1 rayed trough shell (Mactra stultorum) half.

1 painted top shell (Calliostoma zizyphinum).

1 flat periwinkle (Littorina obtusata).

2 netted dog whelks (Tritia reticulata).

and probably the last weathered shell fragment I’ll collect. I’d already stopped picking these up, however perfect, and only took this one to make a point about omitting this object type from beach hauls from now on.

23 glass fragments, 22 of which are the usual lovely rounded ones, and 1 is an unusual piece of black (very dark green) glass. The frosting on the raised concentric circles (which, if this is the base of a bottle, would have been on the inside) is perfect, and a pleasant contrast with the jagged (but worn enough to not be sharp) edges.

[drhoz]

#3769 - Spisula murchisoni - Large Trough Shell

AKA Mactra murchisoni, a large surf clam endemic to New Zealand.

The binomial honours German zoologist J.B. von Spix, and Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, a Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. The former generic epithet and the common name 'trough shell' are Greek for "kneading-trough" and also refers a large pit in the hinge line, where an internal ligament attachs.

Moeraki Boulders, Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand