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Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Lettered Olive Shells


While in Charleston, South Carolina USA we stayed at Folly Beach (August 2017). During beach time, I tried to find shark teeth, phosphate fossils and shells.  Luckily, I found some the the state's official shell, the Oliva sayana aka lettered olive snail. Dr. Edmund Ravenel (1797-1871) named it this due to the patterns found shells reminded him of hieroglyphic symbols. The dark shell in the image might be a Pliocene fossil.