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

Oct 17, 2014

The Giant Triton

The Giant Triton, Monoplex parthenopeus (Salis Marschlins, 1793), may be occasionally found on the local beaches. It is a large gastropod that may reach 6 inches in size. The Giant Triton, which has an extremely bristly, “hairy” periostracum (the outer shell layer of mollusks), should not be confused with the Hairy Triton, which is a smaller species that does not occur on the barrier islands of SW Florida. The Giant Triton has very broad distribution in the tropical and subtr

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