The Florida Cross-barred Venus
The Florida Cross-barred Venus, Chione elevata (Say, 1822), another member of the Venus clams family Veneridae, is one of the most common shells on the beaches of Southwest Florida. It measures up to about 25 mm (one inch). The shell valves have a characteristic sculpture of well-separated concentric ridges that are intercepted throughout the valve surface by more densely packed radial ribs. (The term radial in this case indicates a direction from shell from beak to edge, lik