Taryn The Shell

21/10/2026

Shell lovers 🐚 I recommend this movie 🎬
🐌 Memoir of a Snail 🐌 https://share.google/A5QuI8JyMl3NCwjv9

It's everything!

This stop motion odyssey of hope triumphing over life's despair with humanity to spare makes Memoir of a Snail a deft, heartfelt tale. A bittersweet memoir of a melancholic woman called Grace Pudel -a hoarder of snails, romance novels, & guinea pigs.

18/10/2026

🃏 Week 43 of 2026 from the Broome Shells deck is...
Periwinkle in the gastropod suit ♦

In the photo you can see multiple periwinkles clustering together. These sea snails behave in this way to better survive the hot, dry environment on the rocks during low tide. This helps to preserve moisture and regulate temperature by creating a microclimate. They try to hide from birds and crabs by clustering in rock cracks. The pointy shell helps dissipate wave forces as they try to remain attached to the rock with their foot. When it's safe, when they're in water, they eat algae by scraping it off the rocks with their radula, like a toothy tongue. They're opportunistic herbivores so may also eat lichen and decaying seaweeds. Their shell is quite marvellous up close, there's texture, colour and pattern. From a distance they're well camoflaged... have you ever seen them?

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10/10/2026

🃏 Week 42 of 2026 from the Broome Shells deck is...
Rock snail in the gastropod suit ♣

Rock snail is not very descriptive, and it's part of the murex family even though it looks very different to the spiny specimens we're familiar with. The photo is of a particularly vibrant colour and they range to mostly white with this browny-orange coloured stripes. Did you notice that the shell still has the mollusc animal inside? It was part of the live-shell count and was returned safely to the rockpool after posing for the photo. They're commonly found, as the name suggests, on the wet rocks during low tide. The study of molluscs is called malacology, whereas the study of shells or conches is called conchology. I've been including a bit of both in the card descriptions but most of the photos are shells only without the mollusc animal inside. This mollusc has an operculum attached to its foot so it can be sealed inside during low tide to avoid dessication (drying out) but you can't see it in the photo because of the sand. They have a radula and eat a wide variety of invertebrates including other molluscs, urchins and crustaceans. They are one of the many gastropods responsible for the drill holes we see in dead bivalves.

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04/10/2026

Scrolling through my iNaturalist Observations 🦪

03/10/2026

🃏 Week 41 of 2026 from the Broome Shells deck is...
Frond oyster in the bivalves suit ♠

Related to the oyster we eat in restuarants, this oyster grows on the frond or branch of soft coral hence its name Frond oyster. The zigzag edge is able to close tightly, and looks a bit like teeth... Can you see a face in this specimen? It's possibly my favourite photo of all the cards because it reminds me of a smiling crocodile! Like crocodiles, this frond oyster is great at camoflage, usually thickly covered in sponge, seaweed and other organisms such as worms. It lives in 1 spot and filter feeds through the seawater. I usually find great variety between each specimen I see on the beach and sometimes find both valves still together like this guy.

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29/09/2026

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27/09/2026

🃏 Week 40 of 2026 from the Broome Shells deck is...
Purple sea urchin in the miscellaneous suit ♥

Sea urchins are not molluscs but echinoderms. So this is not a shell but the 'test' left behind when the animal died. When the animal is alive, this test is full and covered in spines (echinoderm = spiny skin) which help it to move along the wet sand and even dig holes in rocks. They eat algae / seaweed and sometimes sponge. I read that they can live up to 70 years! These slow moving creatures can die and be eaten by small scavengers, leaving the exoskeleton in tact. The spines break off as it washes up on the beach. There's strength in their pentaradial (five-part radial) symmetry and this is partly why they're soo pleasing to look at. Purple is also an unusual colour to see washed up among shells, seaweed and coral so they stand out. Have you seen any urchins this week?

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26/09/2026

Got us some scrimshaw 🤩
It didn't come with artist's name or date unfortunately, don't know the provenance.
You can see the tiger stripes of the outer layer of the nautilus at the base, underneath is this nacre mother of pearl layer, a stronger form of calcium carbonate shell.
I like the scalloped edge, nice touch 😍

From wiki:
Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of s***m whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses.

25/09/2026

School visit!
I love going to primary schools, it's sweetly nostalgic & always fun, kids ask fantastic questions 🤩

Here's what the teacher wrote:

🐚 Shells, Sustainability & Caring for Our Coast

Today, our Environment Action Team welcomed a very special visitor, Taryn “The Shell Lady”, who joined us to share her incredible knowledge of shells and the important role they play in our coastal environment.
Taryn introduced students to the fascinating world of molluscs and helped us explore some of the different groups of shell-producing animals, including gastropods, bivalves and scaphopods. Students enjoyed examining a variety of shells, learning how they are formed and discovering the animals that once called them home.
One of the most important messages from the session was the importance of leaving shells on the beach. Even when a shell appears empty, it continues to have an important role in the coastal ecosystem. Shells can provide homes and shelter for other animals, contribute nutrients and minerals to the environment, and are an important natural part of our beaches.
Taryn’s visit was perfect preparation for our upcoming annual WA Beach Clean Up in October. Our Environment Action Team will join the statewide effort to remove marine debris from our coastline, while remembering that natural treasures such as shells belong on the beach.
Our school community is warmly invited to join us for the WA Beach Clean Up! It is a wonderful opportunity to spend time together, care for our beautiful local coastline and help our students put their environmental learning into action.
A huge thank you to Taryn for sharing her time, enthusiasm and incredible shell knowledge with our students. We now have some very enthusiastic young shell experts ready for our beach clean up!

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Thanks for having me Roebuck Primary School 🙏🏽🐚❤️

25/09/2026

Loved exploring at
This big, beautiful gastropod shell will make an excellent home for a hermit crab, left it there of course