Lightning Whelk

Habitat:

found on the bottom of shallow bays in sand or mud near shoalgrass or turtlegrass meadows

Notes:

While doing a beach cleanup with my students, we came across this fellow on the shore very much alive. After a couple of photos it was return to the shallow sandy beach water. beautiful and interesting snail as its members are almost completely unusually "left-handed" (so a kindred spirit LOL) A NOTE ON Scientific name: I have found a few different names online including "Sinistrofulgur perversum" Wikipidia states that "There has been some disagreement about the correct scientific name for this species, which has been confused with Sinistrofulgur sinistrum Hollister, 1958, and Busycon contrarium (Conrad, 1840), which is an exclusively fossil species." I've used the name appearing on a scientific article I found on line.