Note to readers: In 2025 The News-Press and Naples Daily News met with Jose H. Leal at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium on Sanibel. Leal is the Science Director & Curator at the popular Southwest Florida attraction which has a collection of shells that surpasses 600,000.
We asked Leal to show us some of the more unique shells in the museum’s collection. One of the shells he chose is the nobel pen shell. Here’s what to know:
Noble Pen Shell (Pinna nobilis)
PART OF WHAT SHELL GROUP OR FAMILY: Family Pinnidae
WHERE IN THE WORLD (might you find this shell)?: Mediterranean Sea
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: Largest of all pen shells, this species reaches 4 feet in size. It has a beautiful copper color, and the shell is sometimes translucent
ANYTHING ELSE SPECIAL?: This species has been endangered by a combination of over-collecting, pollution, and disease.
Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum: What to know
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium is a museum and aquarium devoted to every aspect of seashells, conchology, and malacology, including the paleontological and archeological/anthropological aspects of the study of shells.
Address: 3075 Sanibel Captiva Rd, Sanibel, FL 33957
Opened: 1995
Web site: shellmuseum.org/
From the Executive Director, Sam Ankerson: “We’re excited about a couple temporary exhibits up now (and for the next several months): All That Glitters is Not Gold: Amazing Abalone Shells and The Search for Something Different: Photographs of Beach and Marine Life by Amy Tripp … and the elusive but wonderful Great Hall of Shells is coming!”
What is The Great Hall of Shells?
According to the museum website, following damage sustained by Hurricane Ian, The Great Hall of Shells, which first opened in 1995, is being redesigned and reinstalled to exhibit a greater quantity and diversity of shells. New displays will feature approximately 3,000 specimens (more than double the number on view previously) with a dazzling array of beauty and global biodiversity, and will include special focuses on Southwest Florida shells, world-record-sized shells, deep-sea species, land snails, and ancient fossils.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Noble pen shell is a rare find in Sanibel museum’s collection
Reporting by Mark H. Bickel, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
