Saturday, December 6, 2008

Photohunter: Breakfast




This is a picture of Kellet's whelk, Kelletia kelletii, snacking on some fish for breakfast. Kellet's whelks are one of the larger gastropods (snails) found on the California coast. They generally tend to scavenge on dead or dying animals, but have also been know to eat crabs and lobsters caught in traps. They use their long, prehensile proboscis to reach into the traps, or in this case holes on top of the plexiglass container, and use the radula at the tip to scrap off flesh or drill through shells.

11 comments:

Leslie said...

Now that's fascinating! I love sharing your posts with my students.

We had such fun with the seahorse one.

Anonymous said...

This would be one unusual breakfast! Thanks for stopping by Spatter...

PastormacsAnn said...

Fascinating photo for our breakfast theme. Did think to post breakfast for anyone else but me.

Nice choice.

Napaboaniya.Elaine Ling said...

This is very interesting for the theme breakfast, very educational as well and not something we get to see everyday :) Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Wow! That's very cool. I've never seen anything like that.

Teena in Toronto said...

Can I have my MiniWheats instead?! Ha!

I played too :)

Four-eyed-missy said...

Very fascinating!

YTSL said...

Woooaaah... what a sight and explanation! ;b

jams o donnell said...

Great shot. I didn't know whelks had probosces like that but then it's a long, long time since I studied and Zoology... Happy weekend

Jientje said...

Ewwww! A little bit scary, but it is a very interesting take on the theme!

shiera (bisdakbabbles) said...

very interesting photo.. but I admit, I don't want to eat breakfast while staring at it :D