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 13, 2015

The Pitted Baby Bubble

The Pitted Baby Bubble, Japonactaeon punctostriatus (C.B. Adams, 1840), is a local microsnail that reaches about 1/5 inch in size. The shell of the living snail is transparent, becoming opaque after the animal dies, and is ornamented with spiral rows of pin-holes, which are present only on the abapical (“top”) part of the whorls. The juvenile live snail illustrated in the photo on the right was collected on September 15, 2014, by Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) student T

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events

Curator's Blog