Reverse Coiled Gastropods ~ H. G. Lee Collection ~

     A vast majority of the tens of thousands of marine and non-marine gastropods species are normally dextral (right handed - i. e., the shell opening is to the right when held spire upwards) while only a limited number of taxa such as Busycon sinistrum, the few species of the Fasciolariid subgenus Sinistralia and most of the speciose family Triphoridae, among others, are normally sinistral (left handed - the shell opening is to the left when held spire upwards). However, accidents of nature do happen, and occasionally a sinistral specimen of a normally dextral species or a dextral specimen of a normally sinistral species will be found - albeit rarely.

     In some 36 years of specializing in "reverse coiled" or "abnormally sinistral or dextral" gastropods, Jacksonville amateur malacologist Harry G. Lee has assembled a collection of 151 individual species which had coiled in a direction contrary to the norm. This collection includes 100 Recent, two fossil marine and 49 non-marine species. A listing of the species is presented below by family in phylogenetic order; genus and species are thereinunder alphabetical. Shell measurement is presented in cm. followed by collection location and the year collected. A year listed in in parentheses is the year a specimen was acquired when the actual year of collection was not available. A "+" following the listed entry indicates that more than one specimen is present in the collection.

Marine Gastropods

Faux Sinistral Cymatium pileare (Linnaeus, 1758) From The Philippines

Faux Sinistral Conus From The Philippines

Which Way Does A Sundial turn?

Some of the specimens listed above on display at the Jacksonville Shell Club Show (June, 2007)

Some of the specimens listed above on display at the Jacksonville Shell Club Show (June, 2007)

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