Photo 1587820, (c) Fabio Moretzsohn, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Fabio Moretzsohn

Attribution © Fabio Moretzsohn
some rights reserved
Uploaded by fmoretzsohn fmoretzsohn
Source iNaturalist
Associated observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Stiff Pen Shell (Atrina rigida)

Observer

fmoretzsohn

Date

January 1, 2011

Description

While visiting Sanibel Island on a cold New Year's Day in 2011, I came across an arrangement of shells of the Stiff Pen Shell, Atrina rigida, on the beach, forming an ellipsis, with the year 2011 written with smaller shells.

I found many large, empty pen shells in the rich beach drift along the shore of Sanibel Island, especially on the southeastern part of the island.

Read more about this bivalve at the website of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, on Sanibel Island:
http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shelldetails.cfm?id=188

Sizes