10/10/2026
🃏 Week 42 of 2026 from the Broome Shells deck is...
Rock snail in the gastropod suit ♣
Rock snail is not very descriptive, and it's part of the murex family even though it looks very different to the spiny specimens we're familiar with. The photo is of a particularly vibrant colour and they range to mostly white with this browny-orange coloured stripes. Did you notice that the shell still has the mollusc animal inside? It was part of the live-shell count and was returned safely to the rockpool after posing for the photo. They're commonly found, as the name suggests, on the wet rocks during low tide. The study of molluscs is called malacology, whereas the study of shells or conches is called conchology. I've been including a bit of both in the card descriptions but most of the photos are shells only without the mollusc animal inside. This mollusc has an operculum attached to its foot so it can be sealed inside during low tide to avoid dessication (drying out) but you can't see it in the photo because of the sand. They have a radula and eat a wide variety of invertebrates including other molluscs, urchins and crustaceans. They are one of the many gastropods responsible for the drill holes we see in dead bivalves.
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