So Much To Discover: National Shell Museum given opportunity to study inhabitant of islands’ favorite shell
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum is embarking on ground-breaking research on the mollusks that inhabit Sanibel and Captiva’s most beloved and elusive shell – the junonia.
On March 14, the museum revealed to a private gathering of about four dozen people that in-house marine biologist Rebecca Mensch had returned from a recent research cruise with three live junonias. The mollusks will not be on display for the public as they are on loan strictly for research purposes.
“It’s a big deal because it’s a major step forward for us as we work to understand more about our local species,” Dorrie Hipschman, Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum’s executive director, said.
“Our goal, eventually, is to have live ones in the museum,” she added.
On Feb. 22-26, Mensch joined museum Board Member Dr. Gregory Hebert and his team aboard a research vessel. Funded by the Florida Institute of Oceanography and the University of South Florida’s School of Geosciences, he has been mapping the molluscan communities of the west Florida shelf.
Mensch noted that Hebert has been conducting the research for about 10 years. The goal is better inform the scientific community and policymakers about Florida’s conservation needs and priorities.
She helped to supervise samplings of various sites, which involved working 24 hours a day doing approximately 30 dredges of the shelf floor in waters anywhere from 65 feet to 110 feet deep.
“Sometimes there’s a lot, sometimes there’s a little,” Mensch said. “Every dredge is different.”
As Hebert collects samples, he preserves them for his research. For the trip, he agreed to postpone preserving any live junonias so Mensch could bring them back to the museum and study them. Only on loan to the museum, the three will be returned to Herbert once Mensch has completed her research.
“We’re so grateful to have the opportunity,” Hipschman said.
Mensch will study the life history of the junonias, including feeding patterns, substrate and lighting preferences, behavior and growth, perhaps even mating, with the goal to better understand them.
“This is the preliminary research, so we can have them on display one day,” she said.
Already Mensch has dived into learning about them. In a short presentation for those gathered, she explained that they have a “little tiny siphon” and a foot smaller than she would have imagined for the size of their shell. The foot has a unique texture to it, which Mensch described as similar to a callus.
The species has two eyes and a split face, which gives it two mustache-like tentacles.
“I’ve never seen a mollusk with a snout that looked like that,” she said.
Mensch has also discovered that junonias bury themselves in the sand, which could prove to be a problem when trying to display them for public viewing in the future. Another reason to study them.
“So we can do so without stressing them out,” she said.
So little is known of the species, Mensch only found one research paper from the 1970s that theorized they eat lettered olives. Only two photos of live junonias have been found – and not on the Internet.
Googling pulls up a lot of junonia shells, but nothing of the live mollusks once living in them.
“People Googling it can’t find it,” she said. “Our guests (at the museum) aren’t going to see it.”
Hipschman explained that it is the connection between the shells and the living inhabitants that help children and adults grow an appreciation and understanding, which can lead to increased conservation. She added that lectures and traditional displays do not provide that connection that live exhibits can.
“You have to experience the live animal yourself,” she said.
A point easily made when those gathered rushed forward to see the three for themselves.
“They (mollusks) are becoming extinct faster than we can name them,” Hipschman said.
As part of the reveal, the museum launched a link on its website under the “Research” tab dedicated solely to Mensch’s junonia work. Photos, video and information will be uploaded as it is available.
“We’ll be adding more on there,” Mensch said.
For more information, visit www.ShellMuseum.org or call 239-395-2233.
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum is at 3075 Sanibel Captiva Road, Sanibel.