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

May 26, 2017

The Three-tooth Carditid

Barely reaching quarter-inch, the Three-tooth Carditid, Pleuromeris tridentata (Say, 1826), belongs to the group of relatively abundant but seldom collected small, local bivalves. This species belongs in the same family (the carditidae) as last week's featured shell, the Broad-ribbed Carditid. The shell is inflated, triangular, and relatively thick, with a characteristic sculpture of 15 to 18 strongly beaded radial ribs. (In bivalve shell terminology, radial applies to sculpt

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