Any Ideas?

[kriptap 0]

Found this today but can't find it in the books, its about 10MM or half inch, thought it was a kind of cyphoma but it has no shell.

 

[acroporas 0]

Did you touch it to confirm that it has no shell?

[kriptap 0]

Yes I squeezed it really hard No But I took lots on angles and am sure there is no shell, but could be wrong, but if you had to ask you don't know right?

[acroporas 0]

Nope I do not know it. But what is the geographic location?

 

Most likely it did have a shell though. The snail is probably just extending it's mantle around the shell so it is covered with tissue on all sides.

 

If you were to touch it, you would have found that it was hard. And then after you touched it the mantle would have tempararily receaded exposing the shell underneath.

[kriptap 0]

Yes should have said, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

[Leslie 0]

From the shape it's quite obviously an ovulid gastropod and as William said the mantle is covering the shell. I'll check references at the museum tomorrow if I can't find it on the web. Maybe Guido & Phillipe can help us out on this one since molluscs are their speciality.

[cookmedoc 0]

Great photograph: I didn’t see anything like this in our databases which are already quite extensive.

It is definitely an Ovulidae. Based on the shape, locality and size we find the following in literature:

 

Pseudocyphoma gibsonsmithorum Petuch

- described from Venezuela and 15 mm plus, fits the shape, but locality is far away and much bigger than 10 mm.

 

Cyphoma sedlaki Cate

- 15 mm and from off Southeast Florida – quite near and locality OK, but the dorsal view of shell should be broad, not slender. A dorsal view can help a lot here.

 

Simnia uniplicata (Sowerby, 1848)

- 13 mm. From Virginia to Brazil, 13 mm and up. Fits best locality, shape and size.

 

There is a lot of confusion in Caribbean Ovulids.

 

As William suggested, when encountering Ovulids, it is essential to take photos after a gentle touch on the dorsum. Turning the shell on the back and photographing the aperture is very important in this group. Put them always back very near the base of the gorgonian they are living on, but in a case as this one, better collect the shell for photography and determination. If you don’t collect, the Ovulids in general crawl up their gorgonian right away after being photographed.

 

Few Ovulids have been figured alive in literature. Most of the photographs are impossible to identify without the shells shown from both sides… and determinations are doubtfull in many cases. Lots of work to be done and this is another example of an important photograph which may be worth diving again for more info on this magnificent animal.

 

I want to point up that the whole family is only described and understood in part. Every year a number of species is described and often their range is wider than expected.

 

Guido

[Alex_Mustard 0]

It is just a juvenile Flamingo Tongue? Albeit a dark one.

 

Alex

[kriptap 0]

Thanks Guido, as long as I have the family name (Ovulidae) then that will do, they are way to small and rare for me to be messing with them, I look for things like this every day on my dives and have not seen this one before, so I just photographed it and left it alone. Thanks for the work you did. Oh and lastly I had a friend in Cyprus (Med) who collected shells there and I used to find then for him all the time, so when I got to Cayman I continued looking for shells here, I find Tongue shells here from time to time, but never found one that would be this size.