Nature | Mysteries of our Gulf | The Lightening Whelk | Spiritual
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.
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?
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
This is an interesting story. I've never heard of this creature....and it's egg carton is fascinating! But I didn't understand what the shell was for? Is that where the whelk lives after it hatched? Do they make their own shell from that nasty mucous they produce?
Did you keep that egg carton thing? Or was it too fragile to pick up?
so many questions :)
Yes, actually if you were to look inside the little gel eggs you would see the tiny shell shaped creature. The videos of the eggs being laid is a bit gooey.....I didn't want to watch too closely. lol Then when the egg sacs hatch you have a little shell with the snail inside. It is really amazing. Then they grow...shell around them. We actually didn't pick it up because we weren't sure what it is. The crazy thing is when I researched this these egg cases are on ebay for sale!!! Can you believe that one?
I find this kind of thing very interesting. I'm glad you wrote about it. I might take a peek of a video because I am that curious about something so different. Nature is amazing. When I hear things like this or watch the nature channels or walk through a forest and so on, my faith in God increases. I mean, these things can't just happen without some kind of order.
No, well, yes, probably it's not surprising these are sold on ebay. The things that are sold can be odd and weird, so lol....people need other hobbies in my opinion :)
Thanks for writing about it.!
that is really cool! i love the history and significance of this shell that you shared. really cool they open from the left and they're the only shell that does so! how unique <3 !!! awesome share.
It was fun researching this topic. Very interesting history. Did you notice the bit about yaupon holly? I though you would get a kick out of that. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
That is sooo cool!!
Thank you! We thought so! Glad you enjoyed!
absolutely fascinating! Explanations interested me very much. I discovered a universe that I did not know at all. Thank you @birdsinparadise.![fossile.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcuidvd1eWNRHUv58qgFd2UeCD3unSY2hcRxet4cGejYM/fossile.jpg)
Here, we have neither the sea nor the beach but we still discover strange fossils.
Nobody has figured out what it was.
Wow, that is beautiful. My husband thinks it is a fossilized Turritella sea snail shell encased in stone. Here is a wikipedia link which shares more information!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritella Have fun! Amazing what secrets our waters hold! Thank you, you're so kind!
Thank you for this answer @birdsinparadise.
I can not wait to read what wikipedia says
The lightening whelk sure looks incredible. I have never seen anything like this too. You are as amazing as @moutnainjewel and I am so glad to have found your blog :)
Yes, it was fun to figure out what we found! You are so sweet, thank you for your kind words!
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