Hi! I’m a college student and bonsai enthusiast with a passion for seashells and a love for every little piece of creation (especially bugs).
🪲🐚🐠🕷️🦜🍄🦎🪼🦀🐍🦋

I love identifying and am proficient in marine bivalves (clams), gastropods (snails), and scaphopods (tusks) native to the American Gulf and Atlantic coast.

Please free to @ me for help or to explain my ID. I am more then happy to do so . If you see an observation that needs another ID, don't hesitate to ping me! Even if it’s a fragment, I’ll do my best to ID it. IDing fragments really forces you to look at the little details on all parts of the shell which is partly why I started the Seashell Fragments Project

Here are some other cool links; just replace "bonesigh" in the URL with your own username to see your version.

Heat map of identifications
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/map?ident_user_id=bonesigh#5/34/-80

Rarest finds
https://elias.pschernig.com/wildflower/leastobserved.html?user=Bonesigh

2025 Year in review
https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2025/bonesigh

iNat’s Tree of life is pretty cool.

The filter I use to ID seashells (so I don’t have to type it in all the time)

Lots of cool stats here

For more difficult IDs I will often cite @marlo 's website: Let's talk Seashells (technical and compares similar species with lots of pictures)
but also sometimes Harry Lee’s more exhaustive list https://jaxshells.org
The Bailey Matthews museum has an excellent photo gallery

I also occasionally ID the unknown list and some common plant species in Tennessee. I like IDing coral-like bryozoans too.

Profile picture: White water canoeing on the Hiwassee River (taking it easy between rapids)

About Myself

Hi! I’m a student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville majoring in plant genetics with minors in entomology and environmental studies soon heading into grad school to study freshwater mussels. I am a bonsai enthusiast (hence the username), all-around science enthusiast (I love studying almost everything), white-water canoeist, hiker, mountain biker, Trekkie (Star Wars too!), blackbelt (2nd degree), avid outdoorsman, Christian, single, fiddler (also mandolin& piano), snow skier (no broken bones yet!), apologist, fish-keeper and more! I also have two huge but very emotional wolfhounds.

I am particularly interested in collecting micro seashells because they take up little space in an already large collection and few others seem to do it, but mostly because I can search for them in pre-collected sand when I'm not actually at the beach. Sadly it tends to be very difficult to ID many of them (at least for me).🖖 Live long and prosper!

“lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path” Proverbs 3:5-6

I believe in science; I believe in the Bible; I find it is not necessary to compromise beliefs in either but they actually fit together perfectly. I find it interesting that although the sun has over 99% of the solar system's mass, it has only 2% of the angular momentum. I think the numerous examples of soft, stretchy, unfossilized dinosaur tissue and blood cells require recent burial. I believe Genesis is history. If you disagree, I would be happy to support a friendly discussion and we can try to find the answers together. Or visit here where Ph.D. scientists from all different fields, from around the world, and from many different Christian denominations have come together to write myriads of articles on all topics. https://creation.com and https://answersingenesis.org

God bless,

-Jacob

Favorite Taxa

View All