Curator's Blog

Museum, research, and collection updates from Dr. José H. Leal, plus Shell of the Week, which highlights a different species every Friday. Most Shells of the Week—but not all—are found in Southwest Florida.

Dr. José H. Leal serves as the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum’s Science Director and Curator. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the University of Miami and has served at the Museum since 1996. Under his leadership, the Museum was awarded its first accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 2010.

José H. Leal

Nov 4, 2016

The Bubble Melampus

The Bubble Melampus, Melampus bullaoides (Montagu, 1808), is a close relative of the more commonly found, local Coffee Melampus (covered in last week’s column). Similarly to the Coffee Melampus, the half-inch long Bubble Melampus lives in mangrove areas, where it thrives well above the tide lines. The shell shape of the Bubble Melampus is strikingly different, however; this species has a relatively longer and pointed spire (section of the shell where the whorls, or coils, are

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