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Southwest Florida Shells with Emphasis on Sanibel & Captiva

José H. Leal

Family Spondylidae

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Spondylus tenuis

Schreibers, 1793

Digitate Thorny Oyster

Shell size to 65 mm; shell ovoid, scallop-like, with lower valve cemented to hard substrates. Upper valve with background sculpture of irregular radial cords crossed by concentric raised lines. Spines with flat, "duck-feet" extremities present on well-preserved or juvenile upper valves, but worn in beached ones. Color brick- to orange-red. Spondylus ictericus is a synonym.

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