I’ve never thought much about those beautiful FLAT SCALLOPS we find on the Sanibel beaches beyond their beautiful colors, their patterns and how unusual their shape is…. which is very… uhhh… flat. I’ve always called it a FLAT but now that I think about it, I’m not really sure if I made that up or not (I do that a lot- oops). I think most shellers call it a FAN SHELL or more appropriately, the ZIGZAG SCALLOP which is what the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum calls it.
But remember, a SCALLOP is a BIVALVE … it has two valves. So think about it, both sides to this SCALLOP can’t be flat. Hmmmm… Why don’t we find the other side? A couple of weeks ago Clark and I were visiting Naples with some friends so while walking the beach Clark picked up a SCALLOP and showed it to me.
It wasn’t a FLAT, CALICO SCALLOP, ROUGH SCALLOP and def not a LION’S PAW. My first instinct was that it was a non-native species so I told him that someone probably bought shells from the store to spread on the beach for a wedding or party. That’s how most shells that aren’t native to this area end up in someone’s shell bag … thought of as a rare shell. I put it in my pocket any way to maybe research it later.
When I went to the Shell Museum to have Dr Jose Leal look at the FULGURATOR OLIVE, I took this shell too. Yes! He said it was the right valve of a FLAT! Our first one ever! He told me that since the convex shape of this valve is so inflated, it catches the water current differently than the flat valve so it travels in a different direction. Look at the bulge on this baby…
Notice that I didn’t say that he positively identified this as a ZIGZAG SCALLOP valve. Dr Leal said this could actually be a RAVENELI SCALLOP which is a very similar shell that has a flat valve and a convex valve…. but whichever it is, I’m very tickled to have finally seen the other half of a FLAT (I’m sticking with calling it just a plain old FLAT). I just want to find one like Super Sheller Clark. Way to go Clark! Do they show up more in Naples and Marco? hmmmm. Have you seen them on any other SouthWest Florida beach?
One quick message about the shelling this week… The beach by the jetty rocks at Blind Pass Captiva wasn’t showing many shells but I heard you had to get in the water to find anything. I walked down the beach to the point in the next photo and found lots of OLIVES and a few other good shells rolling the in the surf line. It was pretty good!
We went to the Lighthouse Beach Last night but didn’t find gobs of shells in the water. I didn’t look up in the high tide wrack line… which I have a feeling I would have found more shells but I am happy with just the few I found that weren’t occupied. Always happy to find candy but I think I might go back to Bowman’s and head towards Blind Pass.. that’s been the best spot for us lately!
I have found only a few of the “flats”. I always wondered what was on the other side! Thanks for sharing the secret!
That’s very cool…
Yet again, you educate us some more! Thanks Pam! :-)
Following your site closely, since we will be there on Monday….looking forward to some much needed shelling time. Love your posts!
I love scallops hope to find bunches come Oct 7th!!! Woohoo. Can’t wait.
I too went to Blind Pass today and there wasn’t many shells. I’ve had the best luck this week on West Gulf dr between access #3 and pass access #7. There’s sand bars all along the beach. I found a King’s crown out on one of the sand bars, lots of olives and murexs. Tonight by access #7 a man found a Horse Conch.
Pam, hope to see you and Clark on West Gulf dr.
Soooooo cool!!
I found a FLAT scallop on my first Sanibel visit 8 years ago&didn`t know what it was .only that I loved it!!My second visit this past April,I found another.I had studied up,so I was training my eye to search for Flats! Thanks for the great pic of all the colorful Flats&I love knowing what the other side looks like now!! Thanks Pam!
I have been lucky enough to find about 5 or 6 zigzags. Thanks for showing us what the other side looks like. I think it is beautiful!
Pam, any news on the results of the Guiness World record?
The “other side” makes its way to Jacksonville. Hehehe. I’ve only found a flat side ONCE, despite the fact that Jacksonville beaches are FILLED with calico scallops.
Perhaps we should engage in a trade. Northeastern Florida shells for Southwestern Florida shells. :P
That is so interesting, Inaya! So they show up in Jacksonville. I doubt it’s the other half from our flats but I wonder where your flat sides end up.
Very interesting mysteries!
I’ve never found a flat scallop so I’ll have to search harder! But you’ve caught my curious eye again! In the second to the last picture, what shell is beneath your two beautiful candies? Is that a flamingo tongue?
Hi Linda, that little shell under the candies is a dusky cone. If it was a flamingo tongue, I’d be doing the happy dance! It’s rare to find them here. The shell above the candies is a turrid. I beginning to love those as much as the little horsies.
Thanks for satisfying my curiosity yet again. My husband found a flamingo tongue when we were in the Bahamas. He was so cute, poking it with a stick and asking if I wanted it. He won’t touch the shells ‘cuz they are dead things but he tolerates my obshellsion!
Ah! The little turrids are winning you over Pam! Keep a careful eye on them, looking out for “different” ones, because I suspect there are several more species around Sanibel than Jose currently has on his database. Of course some turrids are smaller (about half an inch or even less) than the familiar one you sometimes find (the Tampa turrid which can be about an inch long); Jose currently has 10 species of what used to be small turrids listed in the family Conidae right after the cones.
http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shellindex.cfm?sr=121
Hi Pam – I have found several “flat” Scallops down on Marco Island. There is a specific spot I go to down there and I always find tons of good shells there and usually will always found a couple of unique shells each time, too. I also have quite a collection of the flat scallops from Mexico along with the other half – they are much more common in Mexico.
Early morning in TN – it’s beautiful here, but my heart is “early morning on the beach – Sanibel.” Your site keeps me enjoying vicariously until I can get back. Thanks, Pam.
This was a great article! I always wondered how the flat (zig-zag) scallop could be so flat… assuming the other side of the valve was flat also. I always wondered how the little critter could live in that flat little home. NOW I know that other side isn’t flat! Oh, man… how fun would it be to find the whole bivalve :)
And… yes, I LOVE those zig-zag scallops, but, sigh, have only found a few on Sanibel beaches. But I love looking!!
What a beautiful bunch of “flats” Pam. I found three flat valves when I was on Sanibel last December, but only one of them nice and fresh, so it’s not a common species.
It’s interesting: that species is also not common on Nevis in the Leeward Islands, but there I find the cupped valve as often as I find the flat valve.
At least you know what to look for now, which will make a cupped valve easier for you to find. They can be a lot paler than that too, pale yellow or nearly white in some cases.
Thanks for the info on the other side of the flat shell. I’ve got 2 flat ones from Marco.
I actually find a good many flats on Santa Rosa Beach near Navarre, FL. I even have a couple of plain bright orange ones! (I can send photos if you would like) I had enough to make me a shell mirror of flats!! And just wanted to say that I just LOVE your postings. Thank you so much for all that you share. I wish I were closer!!!
we found two flats last summer at pensacola beach never thought the other part would not be flat
Very cool Pam. Do jingles work the same way?
Caren, Both sides of the jingle are pretty flat. The shapes of jingles are so different with each one but I’m almost positive we see both sides wash up together since they are similar. MurexKen showed me a “together” jingle and I got a photo of how flat the both are. Take a look… http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/2010/11/06/beachcombing/
What amazes me about this zigzag scallop is that each side is so different from the other, we only ever see one side… the flat side. It’s like the convex side is… POOF… gone. Maybe there is some marine mammal that thinks they are a delicacy so it crushes the convex side so most of them get broken (I can just envision one of those rays smooshing down on that bubble side with the flat side against the ocean floor to break it open). That’s just my own little secret theory so don’t quote me on that… and dont tell anybody else I said that- LOL. I think Dr Leal had the answer- that the current catches that shell like a sail and it travels much further.
The Common Jingle (aka Anomia simplex), http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shelldetails.cfm?id=197 has a thicker top half/valve and a thinner, more delicate bottom half/valve. When the Common Jingle mollusk dies, the top half/valve easily separates from the bottom half, which is frequently adhered to another shell or rock or some other substrate. Because it is relatively thin/delicate and because it is usually adhered to something else, the bottom half frequently stays where it was when it was living or breaks in the process of coming loose. As for the picture of the Jingle on the Pen Shell (Pam’s reference), the Jingle was living on the Pen Shell, which died and came to the beach with the live Jingle on it. Once on dry land, the mollusk in the Jingle Shell also died leaving the two halves together on the surface of the Pen Shell.
As for the concave or cup-shaped half of the Zigzac scallop, I suspect that it’s shape makes it more easily broken than the flat side. Since these scallops are usually just at/below the sea/sand surface, they are quite vulnerable to predation by rays. I think it likely (I have not personally seen this or read it) that the rays would scoop up the Zigzac scallop and then crush the shell between its upper & lower tooth plates/bands. During this process the concave valve would break first. Then the mollusk soft parts would be eaten by the ray and the flat, unbroken top half would be discarded. That would seem likely to me. If so, that would help to explain the the significant difference in the frequency of finding the two different shell halves. Does anyone have information more definite than my educated(?) speculation?
OMG Same ray theory as I had!
Since my mother collected shells in the 60’s we always called them Fans – don’t know why. We thought the other side must be convex but never found them together. We do find them once in awhile here in Jupiter on the east coast, but not often. Heading back to Sanibel with three friends late next week – look for Jupiter shellers on the beach!!
regarding your comment “both valves cant be flat”, there are some types of bivalves for example in the genus Pandora where both valves are flat, for our local species, goulds pandora, both valves are so flat its hard to imagine the clams body can even fit in there!
Yes, I was thinking about the Pandora also! A very flat little sandwich it is!
What a great find – this website, I mean! So excited about going to Sanibel Is tomorrow (it’s about a two hour drive from Gulfport FL, near St. Petersburg). I love to shell, appreciate nature, and explore new beaches!! And this will be my first trip to Sanibel et al.
How great for you Jennifer! I hope you have a wonderful time!
Jennifer, you are going to LOVE this Island!
Jennifer,
Good luck shelling!
The picture of the lighthouse in this post is stunning!!! You should call it “Lighthouse Reflections”.
I love the flats!!! And the last picture of the lighthouse is beautiful. I needed that after a few weeks of sick kids. Time for a trip down soon I think!
xxoo—Liz
I’ve never seen a flat scallop, and if I ever found the other half, which I’m sure I haven’t, I wouldn’t recognize that it was a scallop. Thanks for the class, teach! Once again, cool stuff!
Pam, in all our visits to Sanibel, I’ve never found a “flat” scallop, but last time we also went to Sarasota briefly, and I found 2. We were on Longboat Key.
Surprised no one commented on the adorable baby’s ear with yout minis. I have an obsession for them and seldom find any. I have one large (50 cent size) and a medium size…but that is it!
Beautiful pix, what heaven it is to search for and collect these treasures!
Hi all,
I have also collected these flat scallops to use for jewelry making. I think they are called Pectin laurenti officially. Easy to drill and use. Not real common, though, and easily broken if stepped on : (
I live in Marco Island, we find the flat scallops all the time!!! I thought they were rare but more and more people are telling me that they have found them! Just thought I would share :)
You are finding the “other side” of the flat? Meaning, the inflated side or “right valve”? Clark found this one in Naples so I guess they are more common more south of Sanibel. Isnt that so interesting? Do you find the “left valve” or what I call the “flat” side often?
Pam,
I look back at old posts a lot. Never seen this post about flats. My family is in Brevard County and there are thousands and thousands of the raised side of beautiful scallops. But, I have never seen a flat! 😩
I have found 2 flat ones at Holly Beach in Louisiana. First time I ever saw one before. They are beautiful.
I actually came across this blog post because I was wondering the opposite thing: why is it that I never find the flat half of the scallop?? I never in my life came across one, think Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, UAE, Spain. The bumpy side on the other hand, I come across those every time I go to the beach. Does anyone know why that might be?
Thanks, Pam!