Mud snail

A marine mud snail, found along the littoral of the city in great bunches. Dead Horse Bay has thickets of them. This one was from Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge; the beach there is normally closed but we went down to the water with a couple of the cutest rangers ever seen in a national park, looking for horseshoe crabs. They — the snails — are just under half an inch long, and you would be forgiven if you didn’t think they were alive. They move slowly if at all along the intertidal flats and look like black rocks. Scavengers, they will gather more quickly if some delectable carcass shows up.

This looks like Ilyanassa obsoleta. As always, when it comes to the gastropoda, I’m up the slime trail without a foot, so if you’re familiar with these let me know if I’m wrong. I’m using this source. Now, talk about confusion, here are some of the common names the species is known as: EASTERN MUDSNAIL. COMMON MUD SNAIL, EASTERN MUD WHELK, MUD DOG WHELK, BLACK DOG WHELK, WORN-OUT DOG WHELK, EASTERN MUD NASSA, MUD BASKET SNAIL, OBSOLETE BASKET SNAIL. They are native to this coast but an invasive out west, where they are filling up San Francisco Bay. If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure not to wear mudsnails in your hair.

Clicking “Snails” under in Subject cloud down there on the right will take you to other posts about the land and freshwater snails of Brooklyn and environs.

(“Worn out dog whelk” — sometimes I feel like you sound.)