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Modelia granosa
Modelia granosa is a medium to large species of sea snail which has a shell with a pearly interior and a calcareous operculum. It is a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Turbinidae, the turban snails. It is only known to occur in New Zealand. I found these 2 opercula at Lyall Bay (but I have a whole bag of these at home :)
Spotted on Oct 2, 2012
Submitted on Oct 27, 2012
2 Comments
Unfortunately this is neither a turbo smaragdus, nor a cookia sulcata operculum...It's smthng else, an unknown species wich produces an always white, bean-like (oval shaped) operculum...
The operculum is colored in situ but fades when bleached in the surf. I think yours is likely to be 'Turbo sp.' possibly this one http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/shellfish/2/...