#venus comb

山田維史 「孤独貝 : ヴィーナスの櫛」 1989年　キャンヴァスに油彩

Icons from Animal Crossing: New Horizons (and Pocket Camp)

Sani Ver

Brought to you by a marine biologist who collects seashells by the sea shore...

CLICK HERE FOR THE AC FISH EXPLAINED MASTERPOST

We have covered SO MANY animals with shells during this series. From the mighty Gigas Giant Clam, to the ferocious Whelk, to the delicious Manila Clam - animals with shells come in all shapes, sizes, and lifestyles! Besides the ones you can catch, there are a bunch of shells laying around on the beaches of your island that you can collect and then make really awesome DIYs (some featured in the picture below). Now, before we get started, I’m gonna lay out some ground rules for myself - unless it’s obvious, I’m not going to try and name the shells to species. However, I will cover the group of animals the shell comes from. I am also not going to cover the Giant Clam Shell, since I covered it already. This is going to be a very long entry lmao

Alright shells...what are they? Basically, a shell is a hard outer-layer that an animal produces. They are usually made of calcium carbonate, and I covered this in detail when I talked about the Dungeness Crab. Most shells you would call a “seashell” come from mollusks, as do the majority of the seashells in ACNH. Mollusks grow their shells from the part of their body called the mantle, which has lots of other functions besides growing the shell. Mollusk shells grow with the animal, layer by layer from the bottom, out or forwards, kind of like your nails. They do not shed their shells; finding their shells on the beach means the animal has perished (this is unlike the shells you may find of crabs, who do shed their exoskeletons). 

Other things you may consider seashells are really any hard animal remains, like coral fragments, crab exoskeletons, urchin tests, and even turtle shells, if you’re that lucky. Anyway, I’ll try to go in order as you see them in the picture above (yes, that’s my villager):

Sand Dollar

By Frédéric Ducarme - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57615200 I chose a picture of a sand dollar alive because honestly, I didn’t realize just how much I didn’t know about them. Sand Dollars are Echinoderms, specifically a group of Sea Urchins that are flattened like pancakes in the Order  Clypeasteroida. They are mostly scavengers and predators of very tiny zooplankton, as well as feeding on algae. Underneath the layer of spiky skin is a hard exoskeleton called a “test”, which is what you find when you find sand dollars on the beach!

Sea Snail

Sea snails are very diverse. Heck, Gastropods - the snails and slugs - are the most diverse of the mollusks. And it’s funny they just call this one “sea snail” when most of the seashells are snail shells. But whatever. This one is from snails of Family Trochidae, the top snails (their shells look like tops, the spin toys? I’m just making it clear, cuz I got confused for a split second myself) Anyway, these snails are mostly herbivores, feasting on algae and detritus, with a fair few being filter feeders.

Summer Shell

Okay...the summer shell really doesn’t represent anything real, but it is definitely another snail, most likely some kind of whelk, SuperFamily Buccinoidea, judging by size and shape alone. 

Coral

Coral is fascinating, but I’ll try to keep it brief. A coral reef, like that shown above, is made of very tiny animals called coral polyps that cement themselves on top of each other into huge reefs. These tiny animals are Cnidarians, which means they are very closely related to the jellyfish and anemone we covered a while ago (yes, they have little stinging tentacles and everything!). Each coral polyp builds itself an exoskeleton, like a little cup it can sit in during its life as it filter feeds from the water. This hard structure is left behind when the polyp dies, making for a new spot for another coral polyp to settle. The hard piece you collect on the shore is hundreds of dead coral polyp exoskeletons stuck together. (As you can imagine, it takes a VERY long time for corals to grow, so please never, ever break off pieces of coral to bring home. They do not keep their pretty colors in death, unlike what is suggested in ACNH).

Conch

From here

True Conchs are Gastropod Mollusks of Family Strombidae. They are often medium to large-sized snails that are mostly herbivores, crawling about in shallow bays and seagrass beds. They have long eye stalks with very distinct eyes - I made sure to find a photo that really showed them off! Conch is a term that’s widely used for lots of similar-looking sea snail shells and meals, but just know true conchs and whelks are completely different groups of animals, no matter what your local fisherman says.

Cowrie

Ah, yet another little snail boi. Cowries are sea snails of the Family Cypraeidae. Their shells are super smooth and shiny, and so that means humans like them a lot. Their shells were used as currency and of course as jewelry. But, they are another snail, living on rocky shores eating algae and detritus, as snails do.

And last, but not least...

Venus Comb

By Samuel Chow from Boston, USA - Fishbone Murex Shell (10 cm), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3049526

This one is actually named to species! This is YET ANOTHER SNAIL, this time in Family Muricidae, the rock snails. They are predators, much like the whelks. The venus comb (Murex pecten) is a very unique species from this group featuring a long, slender shell with over a hundred thin spines that make it look like...well, like a comb! It is fairly common, although perfect specimens are super rare as the spines are fragile. Still, they protect the snail from predation as it scours the soft mud looking for other mollusks to chow down on.