Whoa! Have you ever seen a GOLD-BANDED CONE (Lindaconus spurious aureofasciatus)? It’s a VERY rare CONE found in SW Florida that neither Clark nor I have ever been fortunate enough to find….yet. It’s not actually a different CONE species found locally but it’s a FREAK color form or “a rare abnormality” of the ALPHABET CONE (Conus spurious). Yep, it’s a freak alphie!
You can see here from left to right… a FLORIDA CONE, the GOLD-BANDED CONE* and the ALPHABET CONE. See how tall the spire (the tip) is on the FLORIDA CONE compared to the other two? (Update! Please see below for correct identification of this middle cone)
I am sooooo happy for Jordyn from Georgia! She found this fabshellous GOLD-BANDED CONE* last year June 1, 2013 on the Sanibel side of Blind Pass but didn’t know exactly what she had.
Jordyn and her parents Danny and Lisa went back home to Georgia and did extensive research to find out what kind of shell this was since it didn’t quite look exactly like a FLORIDA CONE and it didn’t have the spots of an ALPHABET CONE. They finally found the book The Sanibel kaleidoscope: A view of seashell variations in color, pattern, and structure
Clark and I walked the beach at Gulfside City Park during low tide last evening and just happened to run into Danny. OMG I was so excited that he had just found a JUNONIA on the beach in front of Sanddollar Condos. This is a very lucky family!
This is how I learned about Jordyn’s CONE… right after Danny told me about the JUNONIA, he told me about the GOLD-BANDED CONE that Jordyn found last year. I just about came out of my skin when he told me they brought the shell back to Sanibel and he could show it to me. I was thrilled when they ran up to their rental unit to get it. Yowza! It sure looks like a variation to me since I remembered seeing a similar shell in that same Harlan Wittkopt book The Sanibel kaleidoscope
When I saw more photos of various types of GOLD-BANDED CONES on Gastropods.com and after looking at the 4th photo down on this page CLICK HERE , I was pretty convinced that, yes, it was this rare shell indeed. The funny thing is… if you noticed above that I put a * behind the identification of the GOLD-BANDED CONE since the jury is still debating whether in fact that it is truly a GOLD-BANDED CONE or not. MurexKen, Larry Strange, Dr Leal and a few other shell buddies have mixed reviews. Half say “Yes” it is and half can’t give it a positive I.D. of GOLD-BANDED to this CONE. That’s what makes this so dang fun and interesting! There are hundreds of different CONE species around the world so it’s really hard to know when it is this “rare” because it might be confused by a shell from the Philippines (for example) which got placed on our beach because perhaps it was bought for a decoration for a beach party. Sooooo, since I’m not a scientist and I’m not going to look into the DNA of this shell, in my book…. it’s a GOLD-BANDED CONE (oh well, it’s not a Gold-Banded Cone LOL- See below). I’ve been looking for one of these shells for years!
I’m incredibly happy for Jordyn and her family so if there was any time to say “Shellzam!” this would be it!
So here goes…. SHELLZAM!
Congratshellations to this beautiful and extremely awesome family.
PS- I think it time to go looking through all of our CONES just to make sure we didn’t overlook one of the lighter banded ones shown on Gastropods photos 3, 5, 7 and 8 . If you find one, let us know here in the comments or on iLoveShelling Facebook– it’ll be fun to see how rare they really are!
UPDATE: JUNE 6, 2014 1:09 PM EST-
It has been absolutely amazing how many conversations I’ve had with different folks around the world about this CONE shell. The good news is… I have one photo of three… I said THREE… (yes!… 3) GOLD-BANDED CONES so we can compare Jordyn’s shell. This next photo is just three out of the four GOLD-BANDED CONES that my lucky friend Clair has found over the years. Clair took this photo and graciously let me use it on this post. Holy Cowrie, Batman! Thank you Clair! Her fourth shell is pictured in Harlan Wittkopt’s book (I mentioned above). She is Clairly The Cone Goddess…
So this brings us back to the question… Is Jordyn’s CONE truly a GOLD-BANDED CONE? I had *ed the ID because there was already some controversy even after I asked some other long time shellers and experts. Yesterday, while visiting Larry’s shop Seashells.com (on the corner of Periwinkle and Fitzhugh on Sanibel) I snapped a few pictures with my iPhone of an INDO-PACIFIC shell that also looked like Jordyn’s shell. Notice that the price is only $1, Which that normally means its a pretty common shell on the other side of the planet.
Then I looked at the apex (the tip of the spire) and saw that it was brownish like Jordyn’s. I know that judging a shell by it’s color isn’t the best way to ID a shell but it sure does make you wanna say Hmmmmm. Now that Susan H and David Carroll thought that Jordyn’s CONE was a OAK CONE (Conus quercinus), this may very well be the shell I photographed with my iPhone yesterday.
So I think this might be a real buzz-kill for lots of us that were hoping JORDYN found a GOLD-BANDED CONE, but I think the jury is coming to a solid conclusion. After seeing Clair’s photo, the links Susan and David provided and seeing the shell I saw yesterday with a $1 sticker on it, I believe now that Jordyn’s shell is an OAK CONE from the Indo-Pacific area… which I call a “Wedding Shell”. It probably came in a bag of shells someone bought for a beach wedding for decoration then got washed out with the tide then washed back in for Jordyn to find. Even so! This is such a wonderful, positive conversation with folks around the world who all love shells and shelling and we can all learn together about what washes up on our shores in SW Florida and the world.
Congrats to Jordyn, Lisa and Danny. They are good people.
What a beautiful shell!! So interesting!!!
Thanks for all the updates!
What a beautiful shell. Congrats to them and thanks for sharing.
Awesome finds!! Congrats to this VERY fortunate and blessed family. ;-)
Wow! I feel like I should check all my shells! I’m bringing my cousin down for the first time in a few weeks and I completely expect her to find something exceptional and when she does I’ll let you know;-).
Wow! What great info Pam. So happy for Jordyn and her family. Finds like that is what can turn a vacationer into a shelter for life. So glad they brought it and ran I to you.
Thanks again.
All the best to you and Clark.
Amazing find! I love Harlan Wittkopf’s Kaleidoscope book and have worn out my first copy. The book helped me understand the unusual aspects of the pink fighting conch I once found on Captiva.
Great Find – now I am going to go through all my shell boxes to see if I have any, thanks for the book tip also. I need to get back to Sanible miss it so much
What a beautiful shell! Congrats on the find!
Beautiful Story about a stunning Shell! Congrats!
Hate to be a downer, but I’m pretty sure that is a wedding shell. Note the brown spire, uncharacteristic of Lindoconus spurius, and the absence of horizontal banding. Not to mention the veritical white breaks. compare to these images. http://www.gastropods.com/6/Shell_3956.shtml
David- you are so not “a downer”! This is how we learn, right? You put the link to the same shell that i linked to- I think you meant to link to the “wedding shell”? Id love to see which one you think it is. While at Larry’s store (Seashells.com on the corner of Fitzhugh and Periwinkle), MaryBeth showed me another Philippine shell that was similar to Jordyn’s (I didn’t have Jordyns with me to compare exactly) but it had that brown spire too. Yep- it was very close. So interesting so thats why i *ed the ID of Jordyn’s shell. Ive never had to do that before! Thank you for your input
http://www.gastropods.com/5/Shell_715.shtml I found your shell, Pam. If I had read the entire article I would have noticed you already checked out gastropods.com. That’ll learn me.
so we have TWO votes for the OAK CONE!
I had to do a little online research, but if you google Conus quercinus (the oak cone) and look at google images, you will probably be able to see that this corresponds precisely to the cone shell that Jordyn found. Conus quercinus is a common Indo-Pacific species, and therefore it is what Pam usually calls a “wedding shell” or “party shell” when found on Sanibel.
The numerous very fine dark spiral lines the shell has, and the shape of the spire, are both ways to differentiate this from other cones. That, plus its glossy surface and the exact shape of its body whorl.
Well put, Susan. Read my comment to David Carroll as well. I might be getting a photo of a “true” positively IDed GBC soon so I hope to add it to this post so we can see the difference.
I see Susan got it first. Well played, Madam. ;-)
UPDATE!!! I have added more information and more photos to the post now that… are you ready for “a downer” like David said?… Its not a gold-banded cone. its a wedding shell and i will be doing a post on those very soon. Please read the updates on this post!
Well, sweet Jordyn might be disappointed her shell wasn’t the rare one, she can take delight in knowing she started such a fun investigation! That wad really fun to read about and look at the different pictures. I hope t that you fund a gold-banded cone one day Pam!
We could say that Jordyn’s shell is actually “rare” on Sanibel, but only because it doesn’t live there at all; it is from the other side of the world, as Pam said. But fortunately for all of us, those “ringers”, the party shells or wedding shells, are all fairly “rare” on Sanibel. They are, however, common enough to be a real nuisance to serious shellers who are trying to find interesting local shells, and to scientists who are trying to map the fauna of the area.
Geez. I wish we could edit our replies. I didn’t proof read my reply to see that my phone’s Swype had messed up my words ha ha!
How fun to follow this latest adventure in shell identification! Thanks for all the photos and information!
Pam, when nothing else is happening on the beach, could you give us a run down of the various shell-ID books you use? Love your shell charts, but for further research which are the best books both for SW FL and world wide? I hope I did not miss that somewhere in your past blogs.
Have you ever shelled in Hawaii? I am just starting to research what is available there.
Thanks for all the information and enthusiasm you share!!
Good investigation Pam… and friends. It sure was exciting anyway AND they found a real Junonia, so all is good on Sanibel. :))
Congrats to this lucky sheller! I actually have two gold-banded cones that I found at Barefoot Beach over the years.
Sabrina, is here any chance that you could send an image of them to Pam so she could put it up here? We would love to see what your two look like. :)