Found on red algae growing on Diopatra tube cap. About 1.5 mm long.
SUPER rare! This Calliostoma tricolor only has one band on the front part of the last section of its last whorl while they normally have multiple. I’ve seen hundreds of their shells and this is my first time seeing this. I would imagine it was caused by a crab attack damaging the mantle, causing the shell to grow strangely. In the last two pictures you can see it compared to what a normal shell would look like. Maybe a one in ten thousand chance find?
This observation is for the smaller orange one. Animals brought onto the Wet Deck of the Sea Center for observation.
This observation is for the larger red one. The animal was brought onto the Wet Deck of the Sea Center for observation.
Small individual- about the size of a thumb nail, looked greener than a tradtional Aplysia californica, was feasting on green algae
Found on Bryopsis corticans algae