What is that!

I stopped dead in my tracks and pointed as my husband and I were walking the beach one morning.

We bent over and examined the unusual thing lying on the beach before us.

We both agreed we hadn’t seen anything like it. We’ve walked a lot of US shoreline from California, to Michigan, to the Carolinas along with Florida and never run across anything like this.

We knew it wasn’t a sponge, obviously not coral, then what was it?

Read on and I’ll share what we found!

The Lightening Whelk

Native Americans revered it, believed it held spiritual value.

The Calusa Indians used the Lightening Whelk in their daily lives. They fashioned tools such as hammers, tools for cutting and woodworking. They fashioned jewelry and decorative objects. Many artifacts have been found with carvings of hawk dancers and birdmen wearing jewelry with the Lightening Welk.

The Lightening Whelk is sinistral shell which means it opens on the left (spirals to the right, or clockwise) All other shells open on the right side of the shell. To Native Americans this was Spiritually significant!

Native Americans believed this clockwise spiral on the face of the shell signifies birth to death, or light into darkness. The spiral face of this shell was often used in pendant jewelry making.

The larger shells were used to drink from during religious ceremonies. A drink called the dark drink was made from the Yaupon Holly leaf and consumed from these shells during religious ceremonies. It was believed important visions were seen during these rituals.

Being edible the Lightening Whelk was consumed in large quantities. To this day in the Gulf States large quantities of these shells are found in Native American burial grounds .

Archeologists have found them from Florida to Kentucky, Mississippi and Illinois.

Although the Lightening Whelk is native to the Gulf of Mexico the significance of this special shell is highlighted by the fact that this shell is found much further north of the Gulf.

Source

So what is a Lightening Whelk?

A Lightening Whelk, sinistrofulgur perversum, is an edible sea snail or whelk. They are diurnal, meaning they are active only during the day.

So what does this shell have to do with what we found you ask?

Well, what we found was the egg case for the Lightening Whelk.

The mating and egg laying season for the Lightening Whelk takes place during the spring and the fall. Whelk eggs are laid in rounded gel covered capsules containing from 1-90 eggs. These capsules are connected in a chain of up to 160 round capsules. After laying the eggs the female Whelk will bury the end of the chain in the sand to anchor the eggs. After the eggs hatch the lightweight case will detatch from the sand and wash ashore. Fascinating isn’t it?

source

And so there you have it! Mystery from the Gulf solved! Isn't it fun to explore and learn something new?

I hope you have enjoyed our exploration today. What treasures have you found while walking on the beaches? I would love to hear! Thanks for stopping by!

And as always Blessings

Feel free to check out some of my other posts:
Nature | Raging Fires
Chocolate Love
Mamey Sapote Love
DYI for Pennies | Ice Cream