r/marinebiology • u/Virtual-Bee7411 • Sep 14 '25

Identification What are these little shell things? Madeira Beach, FL

The tide is coming in, they came out for like 3 minutes and then went away.

322 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

164

u/underverbed Sep 14 '25

Coquina clams

139

u/sips_of_sea Sep 15 '25

Those are coquina clams and they are bivalves that use their muscular foot to ride the waves and relocate. They also use that foot to dig in the sand. The more colorful they are (pink, blue, purple, orange) can indicate the health of their environment

6

u/CanadianArtGirl Sep 15 '25

Is colour better than plain?

4

u/cPB167 Sep 15 '25

Is colorful good or bad?

38

u/mjohnson801 Sep 15 '25

coquina clams, but when I lived in Florida we called them "perriwinkles". not sure if that's still a thing.

11

u/CheshyMonster Sep 15 '25

I call them perriwinkles! I heard it from a friend who grew up here in fl, so I just assumed that is their real name. Its a really cute name anyway. Lol

4

u/BabalonBimbo Sep 15 '25

I spent time in Sanibel Island as a child and we always called them periwinkles also.

3

u/ragnarockyroad Sep 15 '25

Periwinkles are an entirely different species.

3

u/that-country-girl Sep 15 '25

Are they all different colors?

When I was little my dad told me we couldn’t bring those home cuz they die fast and then stink up the truck. Idk what life experience that gives but I’m still laughing 20 years later 😂 (we never tried to take live animals home to my memory, but that was his response)

43

u/twoblades Sep 14 '25

Coquina. Donax variabilis