Digitate Thorny Oyster: Family Spondylidae
Spondylus tenuis (Schreibers, 1793)
Digitate Thorny Oyster
Digitate Thorny Oyster or "Thorny Oyster" is one of the few genus from Family Spondylidae that is collected in Florida. Their bright orange and deep red colors with unusaly shapes and protrusions make these one of my favorite shells to collect. The are not coomon and rarely found on some S. Hutchinson Island beaches while on othe beaches you can average one or tw oa collecting trip. The average beachcomer may pass them up or isn't looking for them.
Thorny oyster with a colic (S. Hutchinson Island January, 2121)
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Bailey Matthews:
Family Spondylidae
Spondylus tenuis
Schreibers, 1793
Digitate Thorny Oyster
Shell size to 65 mm; shell ovoid, scallop-like, with lower valve cemented to hard substrates. Upper valve with background sculpture of irregular radial cords crossed by concentric raised lines. Spines with flat, "duck-feet" extremities present on well-preserved or juvenile upper valves, but worn in beached ones. Color brick- to orange-red. Spondylus ictericus is a synonym.