Whelk egg case
Distribution:
Far offshore in
This series of dried up egg capsules were laid by the giant conch (Syrinx aruanus) – the largest gastropod species in the world. The first flat egg case (with enclosed eggs) is stuck to a rock or hard substrate by ‘dobs’ of mucous and subsequent egg cases are fastened on one side to the one below, so that the egg mass stands upright. When the eggs in each case hatch, they crawl out as tiny snails (about 2 cm long).
In This Section
- Chordates – Animals with backbones
- Invertebrates – Animals without backbones
- Abalone
- Acorn barnacle
- Baler shell
- Blue button sea jelly
- Bluebottle
- Bryozoan
- Bubbler crabs and sand balls
- Chiton
- Cone shell
- Coral
- Cowry shell
- Crab
- Cuttlebone
- Goose barnacle
- Hermit crabs
- Horned ghost crab (Manburr)
- Limpet
- Mud crab
- Mussel
- Periwinkle
- Pipi
- Ram’s horn shell
- Razor clam
- Sand dollars
- Scallop
- Sea hare
- Sea hares
- Sea jelly
- Sea star
- Sea urchin
- Silver-lip pearl oyster
- Sponge
- Tube worm
- Turban snail
- Violet snail
- Marine Pests
- Seagrasses and Algae
- Unusual Finds