Strombus taurus

This group of shells represents an uncommon species of the Family STROMBIDAE. They are called Strombus taurus. They are found in the Marshall Island Group in the Pacific Ocean. These particular specimens were collected by two physicians that worked for the United States Atomic Energy Commission in the years following the testing of Atomic Bombs on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. In the years following the completion of the testing, these two doctors were sent to follow the health of the native peoples of that area when they were allowed to return to their homes. They were also shell collectors and they did some diving and snorkeling of the areas they were working in during their off hours. On one of these collecting trips they found the first reported specimens in many years of this species of Strombus. At first they were not sure of the species since they had not been known from that area for several years. When they returned to the U. S. and home to Houston, Texas; they showed them to a friend who worked at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Mrs. Constance Boone who identified them as the species, Strombus taurus. The first specimen shown at the top of the group was the first they found in 1954 and the shell in the center was collected in 2011. Their recovery as a species is remarkable and the newly collected specimens appear to be even more beautiful and hardy than before. No scientific study of the species has yet been undertaken and the viewer can draw their own conclusions.