Beautiful seashell found at Outer Banks turns out to have squirmy tenant still inside

The abundance of seashells on North Carolina’s Outer Banks makes it one of the nation’s top destinations for shell collectors, but with quantity comes the unexpected and even the creepy.

Cape Lookout National Seashore shared an example Saturday, after a large tulip shell found at the national park proved to be occupied by something icky that refused to leave.

“Imagine our surprise when we turned it over and discovered that the snail was still at home!” park rangers wrote on Facebook. “Although the snail has nearly closed off the shell’s aperture ... you can catch a glimpse of the red colored snail inside.”

The reddish shell was clearly a keeper, but it had to be returned to the ocean because there’s no way to evict a snail without killing it, park officials posted.

“The snail and the shell are one -- the snail is born with its shell and the shell grows with the snail throughout its life,” the park rangers wrote. “Unlike a hermit crab, which ‘borrows’ its shells and must switch to a larger one as the crab grows; the only way that a snail’s shell can separate from the snail is if the snail dies.”

The National Park Service has posted a series of unusual seashell discoveries on Facebook in recent months, noting the shells often turn up with storm surge along the barrier islands.

In November, Cape Lookout noted visitors were finding larger-than-average shells, including a 13-inch whelk shell that pre-dated the current incarnation of the shifting barrier islands. It had been buried in marsh mud long enough to turn black, officials said on Facebook.

Another find, from September, proved to be a prehistoric clam shell that was 6 inches long and weighed 2 pounds, the park posted. An exact age for the shell was not given, but it was vastly larger than modern clams, the park said.

Storm waves associated with Hurricane Dorian are believed to have picked up the large shell and carried it over the sand bars to shore, park ranger said on Facebook.

This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Beautiful seashell found at Outer Banks turns out to have squirmy tenant still inside."