Gary J Sibio
Lightning Whelk Shell (2017-09-01 17-39-16a)
Lightning Whelk (Class Gastropoda : Superfamily Buccinoidea : Family Busyconidae : Sinistrofulgur perversum)The photo was taken at the Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, Illinois (Lake County). It was just part of the decor in the hotel lobby. These creatures live in the oceans off the coast of the southeastern United States, Florida and the Gulf Coast and not in Lake Michigan, it either accompanied someone back from their vacation or purchased somewhere. It feeds on bivalves and is itself edible by humans. They range in size from 2 1/2 to 16 inches. I didn’t measure this one but it was over a foot in length.
The photo was taken using a Nikon Coolpix P7700 camera. I used ACDSee Ultimate 10.4 to crop a bit to get rid of the edge of the shelf, adjust the lighting and boost the contrast and vibrance to bring out the color a bit.
Photo © 2017 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved
Nice detail here Gary.
Thanks, Carol. I like the way it came out despite the lighting being less than optimal.
Thank you. My wife and I took a mini-vacation and stayed at the hotel. When I saw it on the shelf, I had to get a photo. When I got home I worked on the identification.