Olive shell
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 Lettered olive, Oliva sayana
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Olive shells are gastropod molluscs of the family Olividae found mostly in warm tropical seas. The marine snails that constitute this family are all carnivorous sand-burrowers, feeding mostly on bivalves and carrion and are known as some of the fastest burrowers among snails. They secrete a mucus similar to that of the Muricidae, from which a purple dye can be made.
Physically the shells are oval and cylindrical in shape, with fine ripples covered in various patterns. This pattern comes from a dye that it creates naturally over its lifetime. They have a well-developed stepped spire. Olive shells have a hole at the posterior end of the aperture from which protudes a receptor that detects danger from behind or above. They keep a glossy shell by pulling its foot over the surface.[1][2] Olive Shells first appeared during the Campanian.[3]
The shell of the lettered olive, Oliva sayana, is the state shell of South Carolina in the United States.
[edit] Genera
 Variable dwarf olive, Olivella mutica |
 Lettered olive, Oliva sayana |
 Brown olive, Oliva reticularis bifasciata |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Washington State University Tri-Cities Natural History Museum (2001). Family: Olividae (Olive Shells). Retrieved on 12 July 2006.
- ^ Vermeij, Geerat J (3 April 1995). A Natural History of Shells. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00167-7. pps. 89, 100, 114.
- ^ Vermeij, Geerat J (1 September 1993). Evolution and Escalation. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00080-8. p.182.
