Whose shell is that?: The very lovely Elephant Snail

If you’re anything like me, you can’t step foot on a beach without having one eye on the water, you know, in case of Whales and one eye on the sand, you know, in case of cool shells (and corals and critters and uh, false teeth 🤷‍♀️)

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I’d been finding oval, shield-like shells for ages, all of varying sizes but hadn’t really taken the time to think who it had once belonged to. It wasn’t until I found an Elephant Snail doing what it does best, nestling under rocks in rock pools grazing on algae that it clicked!

I don’t know why, but I lose my mind when I see one of these little guys and gals. I should also point out that they’re not necessarily little and adults can grow up to around 15cm in length! But they are just ridiculously cute with their two tentacles waving around in front of them and their too small shell, which often appears just as a sliver of white or disappears all together if the mantle folds close over the top

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I’ve seen a few people refer to the shells as ‘fingernail shells’ which if you ask me, is the stuff of nightmares for some reason. But if you look closely you can see there are ridges where layers are added to the shell as the animal grows – almost like the rings of a tree!

Elephant Snail – Northern Illawarra