Whilst lazing around on the beach last week at Hat Chao Samran I decided to expand my skills as a naturalist and go shell collecting! The only issue constraining this self-improvement is my complete lack of any book to help me identify what I found.

Quite an amazing variety of shells were easily found on the various strandlines on the beach. Many of the shells were tiny or just fragments of larger shells, but here is a gallery of the complete shells that I collected in about 30 minutes.

Fortunately, I have a contact for shells – Pam Piombino. She kindly sent me the following information on the above collection with the caveat that she was working from memory, without the benefit of her books so that if anyone has anything to add or any corrections please post your remarks here.

“From left to right:Row 1: First two shells are from the large family Turridae, known by the notch at the top of the aperture. The genus might be either Inquisitor or Liphiotoma. Species, I don’t have a clue. 3rd. shell a bivalve, that I would guess is in the family Luncinidae, another large group. 4th shell: Family PlicatulidaeRow 2: First shell: Family Arcidae, perhaps Anadara antiquata. 2nd shell: Family Arcidae, perhaps Anadara natalensis?? 3rd shell perhaps family Mactridae? 4th shell: Family Muricidae, genus Murex, species ??Row 3: 1st shell: Family Turritellidae, Genus probably Archimediella. 2nd shell: Family, Architectonicidae, perhaps Architectonica stellata??? 3rd shell: Family Marginellinae? 4th shell: Family Fissurellidae: Genus, Diadora  species maybe ruppellii.

Row 5: Last shell, Family Plicatulidae”

Pam also gave this sensible piece of advice.

“If you are going to spend some time trying to find shells, please be aware that there are several members of the Conus family that can kill you. Please look up pictures of: Conus geographus, C. textile, C. striatus, C. quasimagnifucus, and C. aulicus. Never, ever handle these unless you are sure they are very dead. There is no safe way to pick up a living member of these species as they have a harpoon that can bend to any angle to stab you. If I see a fresh one on the edge of the water or on the beach, I get a stick and make sure that the animal inside is gone. “

shells, thailand, nature