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

Jul 31, 2015

The Sunray Venus Clam

The Sunray Venus Clam, Macrocallista nimbosa (Lightfoot, 1786), is one of the most attractive members of a very diverse family of bivalve mollusks, the Veneridae. Sunray Venus Clams have shells that vary in color from salmon-pink to brown to grayish-blue. The “Sunray” pattern on the valves is always asymmetrical, i.e, one valve is not a mirror image of the other. A prized shellfish item, the species is being farmed in captivity in parts of Southwest Florida, including Pine Is

José H. Leal

Jul 3, 2015

The Lettered Olive

The Lettered Olive, Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834, is a relatively common species on the beaches and sand flats of Southwest Florida. Despite its relative abundance, it is a desirable, collectible species, certainly because of its glossy, colorful shell, and its assorted variations. The locally famous Golden Olive is nothing but a varietal of the species in which the shell lacks darker pigments. Lettered Olives feed on marine worms, crustaceans, small bivalves, among other prey

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Curator's Blog

The Sunray Venus Clam

The Lettered Olive