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José H. Leal

The Micromollusks — Hidden Gems of Our Beaches


Casual beachcombers may walk the beaches for years and not notice

them, but “micros” (as they are known in the jargon of shell collectors) represent a big parcel of the local diversity of mollusks. Ranging in dimensions from half an inch to the size of a grain of sand, micros may be as handsome as their larger counterparts. To find micros, collectors take home coarse sand scooped by the water line, then search for them using a hand lens or small microscope.


Found locally on Sanibel and Captiva, handsome Seila adamsii reaches a maximum size of half an inch.

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