Thanks, Peter. I don't have much knowledge about this ontogeny business, but I believe the pattern you see on the outer lip is common to the final structure of the larval stage. You can see this (perhaps) more clearly in the example "quick change juvenile from Arno" in this same series. Although the shell is damaged, you can see little pieces of the teleoconch stuck in the protrusions and embayments of the protoconch's outer lip. When that mysterious switch is thrown, that proto- suddenly becomes teleo-.

But someone more expert can probably "teleo" better than I can.

David

-----Original Message-----

>David,
>
>No idea what it is, but the structure of the outer lip makes me
>suspect that it is an fully mature adult.
>
>Very interesting!
>
>Peter


"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." -- G.B. Shaw

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