Slipper Shells (pictures at bottom of blog)

Prominent on the beach in Connecticut are what are called "Slipper Shells." These are mollusks, animals related to snails that form shells. Slipper shells are in the family of gastropods, or mollusks that form a single shell as opposed to a bivalve, like a clam, that form 2 connected shells. Slipper shells are cap-like, not as complicated as the snail shells that twist in a coil or shells like whelks and conches that twist to a pointed shell. They are simple. The name slipper come from the underside where there is a shelf for the animal to hide under. Perhaps this was a precursor of a crude bivalve-like type shell a rudimentary snail shell.

The handbook I have on shells describes 2 types of Slipper Shells along the Atlantic shore. The Common Atlantic Slipper Shell (Crepidula fonicata) the larger species with little color in its shell and the smaller Convex Slipper Shell (Crepidula convexa) that is a reddish to purple color. The Convex Slipper Shells are more common further down the coast of the US and less arched, more oval than the Common Atlantic variety.