Beachcombing along the strandline at Druridge Bay, 16 September: barnacles, wartime concrete, bladder wrack, kelp, keel worm, lichen, limpet, lyme grass, septarian nodules and serrated wrack.
Druridge Bay
Tag: keel worm
Queen Scallop
The lower (right) valve of the queen scallop, Aequipecten opercularis, is flatter than the upper valve.
The ‘front’ or anterior ear of the hinge is always longer than the rear (posterior) ear, which in this specimen appears to have been chipped away still further. This scallop starts its life attached to the sand or gravel of the sea bed but it’s capable of swimming by flapping its shells.
Keel Worm and Barnacles
Amongst the tubes of the keel worm, Pomatoceros triqueter, there are several barnacle shells. The keel worm is an annelid worm, which catches its food by waving its tentacles. It can withdraw into its calcareous tube and protect itself by closing a trapdoor, the operculum, across the entrance.
Sea Mat
Down between the ribs, centre left on this high res scan of the shell, is a small colony of sea mat, a bryozoan, which, like the keel worm, is a filter feeder.