This is the second of two shells I found at a local antique shop. (The other is in my previous post) It is Melo amphora, which has several common names including, the Bailer Shell, the Melon Shell and the Diadem volute. The species is distributed from southern Indonesia to New Guinea, and around the northern half of Australia.
The shell can grow to a whopping 550mm in length. This one is more moderate in size at just over 300mm or 12 inches. The animals are mostly active at night and bury themselves in sand during the day. Like all members of the Volutidae family, they are carnivorous and feed on other molluscs and marine invertebrates.
( All photos, videos, and text on this blog are by @mostly.nature)
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