All that remains of a ram's horn squid...
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com
A prize find for most any beachcomber is the coiled and chambered inner-shell of the ram’s horn squid (Spirula spirula). I found this on on Cocoa Beach a few months ago and decided it would be fun to get a good close-up photo of it. This beautiful shell is less than 1 inch across.
This shell is all that remains of the ram’s horn squid, which is a deep water species, and serves as a mechanism to provide buoyancy to the squid.
I remembered this photo today when I was having a swim at Upham Beach in St. Petersburg and found a live seahorse in the water. I easily captured it in my cupped hands and showed it to several families with small children before I released it unharmed into the water. It has been many years since I’ve seen a live seahorse and I was so excited to find it that it did not occur to me to take a photo of it. Not sure how I’d have done that anyway, with both hands needed to hold the seahorse and enough water to keep it comfortable.
