Hi everyone

My name is Kath and I'm new to the list.  As well as being an amateur
conchologist for many years (New Zealand and Asia Pacific regions) I work in
the field of archaeo-malacology (meaning I study shells from archaeological
sites).  My focus areas are the islands of the tropical Pacific and
Southeast Asia.  It can be difficult sometimes to differentiate in samples
between natural shell, midden (food) shell and debitage from the production
of shell artefacts.  I'm working on the classification of natural deposits
within archaeological samples at the moment and I have a question regarding
hermit crab damage (particularly regarding the genera Trochus and Turbo)
here to throw in the ring...
The indicators I'm using at the moment for indications of residence of a
gastropod by a hermit crab are: enlarged aperture, abrasion where the shell
has been dragged along the groung, and the absence of the columella.  What I
would like to know are 2 things:
(1)does the hermit crab dissolve the columella or physically knock it out?
(2)does the hermit crab (at a given point) break the shell? I ask this as I
have plenty of spires of various turbinids (T. setosus, T. argyrostomus, T.
chrysostomus, L. cinereus etc) where there is clearly evidence of the hermit
crab residence.  With regards to Lunella cinereus, I also have a constant
pattern of holes in the body whorl just left and above the aperure - could
this be due to hermit crab residence?

Thank you

Kath.


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