Can you ID this seashell?

February 18, 2006 7:11 PM

Please help me identify this seashell...

Just received one of these as a gift for Valentine's Day gift, but don't know what it is and can't find any identification sites that include it. I think it's a kind of whelk. Anyone?

posted by hermitosis to Pets & Animals (7 answers total)

Best answer: It's a venus comb murex.
posted by Flitcraft at 7:14 PM on February 18, 2006

Response by poster: Thank you!!

As you can surely understand, none of those were words that were making it into my endless google searches.

It has a little gold stand and everything-- just beautiful.
posted by hermitosis at 7:26 PM on February 18, 2006

Flitcraft, how did you know that?
posted by Nelson at 7:41 PM on February 18, 2006

Damn that's weird looking.
posted by delmoi at 8:45 PM on February 18, 2006

Off-topic, that's a beautiful photograph.
posted by rafter at 8:47 PM on February 18, 2006

I did a radio programme recently which touched on shell collecting and I saw these on websites while I was researching. What a clever Valentine gift!
posted by Flitcraft at 11:07 AM on February 19, 2006

badass-looking shell-of-a-predator, is what it is.
posted by eustatic at 1:54 PM on February 19, 2006