I don't know why Carinaria is being offered more commonly, but actually this
is not a "deep water shell" in the sense that Pleurotomaria is. It's a
pelagic species which lives near the surface of the ocean, though often many
miles from shore. So, it may live where the water is very deep, but it
doesn't live very deep in the water. And sometimes they come fairly close
to shore.
I had one personal experience with this genus, many years ago, while I was
serving in the United States Navy. I was stationed on an aircraft carrier,
and for part of the time I was on the ship we were stationed in the
Mediterranean. Because our ship was so large, it could not tie up at the
pier like smaller vessels, so had to anchor about a half mile offshore. One
night I was out on the fantail (the outdoor rear deck, below the flight
deck), watching the various sealife swimming under the bright security
lights - schools of squid and tiny fish; big tarpon chasing them; an
occasional shark. After a while I noticed another creature, about 5 or 6
inches in length, swimming very slowly and very close to the surface. At
first there were only a couple of them, but then more of them gradually
appeared until there were perhaps 15 to 20 of them swimming slowly about.
I was about twenty to twenty-five feet above them, so I couldn't see any
detail at all. But my curiosity was aroused, so I went and found an empty
paint can and a ball of twine, and lowered the can down to the water. The
things were quite slow-moving, and made no apparent effort to avoid the can;
but it still took me a good twenty minutes before I managed to scoop up one
of them. When I dumped that critter out on the deck, all I can say is it was
just about the wierdest looking animal I had ever seen. I wasn't even sure
what phylum I was looking at. A small head with tentacles, a slug-like body
with fleshy little undulating fins, and a ribbed, conical shell about an
inch in height, which looked just like it was made of glass. I preserved
the creature in rubbing alcohol, made a sketch of it, and kept it in my
locker for a few months, but the preservation was not good and the specimen,
including the shell, eventually fell apart, so I discarded it. It wasn't
until years later, as I was looking through an invertebrate zoology
textbook, that I found a picture which resembled my drawing, and discovered
what it was. It was a Carinaria, I'm not sure what species, though I
believe there is one called C. mediterranea, so that may have been it.
Paul M.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Stemke" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2005 12:17 PM
Subject: Carinaria cristata
> Hello All.
>
> I've been seeing an increased frequency of Carinaria cristata being
> offered from Madagascar, a shell I rarely saw offered before(although to
> date I seem to be outbid in my attempts to purchase one). Can anyone
> enlighten me as to why this shell, a deep water heteropod, has suddenly
> become more frequent?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Doug
>
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