Peanut Worm

Peanut Worm

Peanut Worm in shallow water

Clark and I boated out to North Captiva and Cayo Costa today and found this flopping around in the shallow water. What the heck is it? I was thinking it was a live ANGEL WING that had peeped out from it’s shell below but it’s a PEANUT WORM. We found lots of SUNRAY VENUS CLAMS so maybe that’s what the live mollusk looks like when he peeks out of his shell from below the surface. I didn’t dig it up (Yikes!) to find out so I’d love feedback, if anybody knows what it is (as “clean” as possible, please- haha!).

6" Sunray venus

It’s a monster! This was the biggest SUNRAY VENUS that we found today. I didn’t get a chance to clean it before I took this picture but most of that crud will come right off so it should be really pretty.

Brown baby's ears mixed with our other finds

We were very happy to find MACULATED BABY’S EARS today too. These are the brown ones that aren’t as common and have brown smears on them. The one to the right of the WENTLETRAP has spots on it. Also pictured….3 FALSE ANGEL WINGS, 2 RICE OLIVES, a BUBBLE, PEAR WHELK, and a baby LIGHTNING WHELK.

We didn’t find much by the tree roots on the south tip of Cayo Costa but we were still happy with our treasures we picked up on the way there.

"Turtle Shells"

Post Update 4/6/10……..Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum director Jose  H. Leal identified the top picture as a sipunculid, also known as a PEANUT WORM. That’s a new one for me. So there was no shell underneath. Weird, huh?