During a recent trip to Hampton ...

March 17, 2021

During a recent trip to Hampton, Virginia, VMNH Associate Curator of Recent Invertebrates Kal Ivanov and Research Technician Liberty Hightower did not miss the opportunity to join Hampton University's Assistant Professor Shawn Dash on an impromptu birding trip at Grandview Nature Preserve!

Part of the hike included an extensive sandy beach along Chesapeake Bay, where a most unusual discovery took place – a "Mermaid's necklace". This strange, paper-thin string of circular capsules was nothing like our VMNH friends have ever seen before. Luckily, Dr. Dash had an immediate answer – these alien-like structures were not the mermaid's long lost jewelry, but the egg cases of a creature that some of us have enjoyed for dinner during occasional visits to the Atlantic Coast – a whelk – which are large predatory snails in the family Buccinidae.

Subsequent examination revealed that the egg cases were laid by one of Virginia's largest and most common whelk species – the Knobbed Whelk, Busycon carica. After laying her eggs and providing them with a tough protective cover, the female Knobbed Whelk will bury one end of the egg case in the substrate to provide an anchor for the developing eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the tough protective cover has served its purpose. It slowly weakens until eventually it becomes dislodged and floats away often to be washed on the nearest beach spreading the story of the legendary sea creature.