Mossy Mopalia Shell

[Carl_Constantine]

This is cool. My kids, I think it was my oldest daughter actually, found this shell while walking along the beach the other day. It's the shell of a Mossy Mopalia.



What's more interesting is the underside of this shell. It kind of reminds me of an abaloni (sp??)



I'm going to do an image stack of this shell just to try to get some more detail on it and I'll post the results, but I took these quick shots this morning to show everyone.

[Mike B in OKlahoma]

Does look like an abalone! I guess these are the shots you were talking about in the other forum. Show us your stacks! <heh>

[Carl_Constantine]

Yes this is the one. The edges of the shell would be blown out by the flash when I did it.

Haven't done the stacks yet, hope to do it this weekend. With the salt water on this thing, it don't smell too good :-)

[Planapo]

Carl, interesting find, always nice to see for me as these are rarer at my place with mainly sandy beaches.

This is a member of the Polyplacophora, 'chitons' they are called sometimes in English, I believe. And their shell is segmented.
Whereas, as far as I know, Abalone is an originally Spanish name commonly used for haliotid snails (Gastropoda) . Their shell is not segmented.

Cheers,
Betty

[Dread]

Betty is spot on, these Mossy Mopalias are polyplacophores belonging to the Amphineura Class of Mollusks. Great find Carl('s daughter), this little chiton most likely came to its demise at the end of a Black Oyster Catcher's beak like those that nest at Race Rocks, not too far from Victoria:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/t ... paliam.htm

If you poke around that site you'll find a not so "dreaded" Dread!

[Carl_Constantine]

Betty is spot on, these Mossy Mopalias are polyplacophores belonging to the Amphineura Class of Mollusks. Great find Carl('s daughter), this little chiton most likely came to its demise at the end of a Black Oyster Catcher's beak like those that nest at Race Rocks, not too far from Victoria:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/t ... paliam.htm

If you poke around that site you'll find a not so "dreaded" Dread!

Oh wow! You're like right around the corner from me. I live in Esquimalt, near admirals and Craigflower road. My mother used to be a secretary up at LBP, so I've been there several times. In fact our family acquired the bathtub Prince Charles would use on his visits to LBP :-) sold it with the house a long time ago mind you.

Love to meet up with you sometime. PM if interested.

[Ken Ramos]

Interesting thing, never seen one before, not even a photo until now. Just to show how much I know, I thought it was a turtle until I started reading the post. Pretty neat stuff there Carl.