Sand collar

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Sand collars are the egg masses of the gastropod family Naticidae. They are collar-shaped [hence the name ’sand collars’] and consist of sand grains cemented together by a gelatinous matrix with embedded eggs. Although the collar feels hard, plasticky and appears dead, each collar contains thousands of capsules housing one or several embryos, which in species with planctonic development hatch out as bilobed veligers. When the eggs hatch, the collar disintegrates.

[edit] References

• Bandel, K. (1999) On the origin of the carnivorous gastropod group Naticoidea (Mollusca) in the Cretaceous with description of some convergent but unrelated groups. Greifswalder Geowissenschaftliche Beiträge, 6, 134-175.
• Huelsken T. et al (2008) The Naticidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) of Giglio Island (Tuscany, Italy): Shell characters, live animals, and a molecular analysis of egg masses. Zootaxa, 1770, 1-40.