Gearing up for my impending trip to Cozumel, I am, as usual, reading everyone's trip reports and looking at their pictures (notably those posted by jlyle over on D2D - wow!) with heightened interest. I suddenly remembered a critter that I saw once in the water just off the back of my hotel some 15 years ago when I was still a mere snorkeler - a cowrie.
What a bizarre creature! I always had thought the the cowrie shells I had seen had been artificially polished, since the outer surface was so smooth compared to the shells of, say, conchs and whelks that I see in the wild. Not so; the shell of a live cowrie looks just like they do when you see them in someone's shell collection. The reason for it is when a cowrie extends from its shell, the animal oozes out of that slit in the bottom and completely encapsulates the shell.
I haven't seen another one since, so they must not be that common, or they are usually around in some other part of the year from my usual May-July visits. Has anyone else seen one there? I haven't seen one in anyone's picture collection or read any accounts on Scubaboard of a spotting.
What a bizarre creature! I always had thought the the cowrie shells I had seen had been artificially polished, since the outer surface was so smooth compared to the shells of, say, conchs and whelks that I see in the wild. Not so; the shell of a live cowrie looks just like they do when you see them in someone's shell collection. The reason for it is when a cowrie extends from its shell, the animal oozes out of that slit in the bottom and completely encapsulates the shell.
I haven't seen another one since, so they must not be that common, or they are usually around in some other part of the year from my usual May-July visits. Has anyone else seen one there? I haven't seen one in anyone's picture collection or read any accounts on Scubaboard of a spotting.
