Every state has a long list of official icons. The official aircraft of New Mexico, for example, is the hot air balloon, while in Hawaii, the official sport is outrigger canoe paddling.
Many coastal states also have an official state shell. New York has the beautiful bay scallop, while Mississippi and Virginia have the un-beautiful but economically important oyster. And in Texas it’s the lightning whelk — a long, tapered shell that opens on the left side, not the right.
Lightning whelk shell. Credit: NC State Parks, photo by S. BlandThe lightning whelk is found in the waters of both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. It lives in shallow bays, where it burrows into the bottom in search of clams and oysters. It uses its shell like a crowbar to wedge open the shells of its prey, then inserts its long tongue to scoop out the meat.
The female lays her eggs in strings of pancake-shaped capsules. Each capsule can contain scores of eggs, and a single string — which can be a couple of feet long — can contain more than a hundred capsules. The string is anchored to the bottom until the eggs begin to hatch.
As the hatchlings grow, their shells grow with them — up to a foot or longer. Juveniles have white stripes that look like lightning bolts. As they mature, the shells are colored in shades of tan and gray.
The lightning whelk spirals to the left, which is rare. That may have led some native tribes to think of it as sacred. But that didn’t stop them from using it as everything from a water jug to a digging tool —a beautiful but useful tool for life along the Texas coast.
