Lettered Olive

• The patent-leather gloss of its shell comes from the mantle, which covers it entirely while the animal moves beneath the sand and keeps it from being worn away.
• The furrows it leaves as it travels just below the surface give away its presence on Florida's beaches.
• Its shell is glossy and smooth like a polished olive, and that finish comes from the mantle wrapping it completely while the animal is active, just as in cowries.
• It hunts while buried: it moves beneath the surface of the sand leaving a visible furrow, and catches bivalves and small crustaceans, which it wraps in its foot and drags downwards to consume.
• It eats beneath the sand, not at the surface, which protects it from its own predators while it feeds.
• It is nocturnal, and on Florida beaches it is found by following the furrows it leaves in the sand at dawn.
• Its shell has long been prized by collectors and was used as an ornament by the indigenous peoples of the Gulf coast.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - external calcareous shell (mollusc)

Habitat and environment

Beaches and shallow sandy bottoms of the western Atlantic

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Americoliva sayana