Pristis Egg Cockle

Shell size to 70 mm; shell moderately thin, light, very inflated, ovate. Surface smooth, sometimes polished. Umbones rounded. Palial line simple. Ventral margin strongly crenulated. Color cream or light-yellow, with yellow, orange, or brownish marks. Interior cream, sometimes with salmon-pink, orange, of light-brown color around shell margins. Do not confuse with locally occurring Laevicardium serratum, which is less inflated and has less conspicuous hinge teeth. The specimen illustrated was collected in January 2015 by Harold (Smoky) Payson at the east end of Sanibel. Many thanks to Jan Johan Ter Poorten of the Field Museum of Natural History for his assistance with identification of this species.