Phuket Sea Shell Museum

International shell collectors would sell their mothers for even half of the remarkable collection on show at the Phuket Seashell Museum, on Viset Road, near Rawai Beach. The exhibition features more than 2,000 species, including the only left-handed Noble Volute ever discovered, giant clams, 380 million-year-old fossils and one of the worlds rarest golden pearls.

A labour of love for the Patamakanthin brothers, it has taken over forty years and visits to the four corners of the earth to bring together this extraordinary exhibition.

History

Welcome to one of Phuket's most treasured collections! For Fourty years, the Patamakanthin brothers have searched the world for the most beautiful and unique seashells. Today, their collection of over 2,000 species is displayed here at the Phuket Seashell Museum. You will see one of the rarerest golden pearls, the only left-handed Noble Volute, giant clams and fossils dating back 380 million years! Shell collectors from around the world have proclaimed this collection to be one of the most extraordinary collections to be found. You haven't experienced phuket if you haven't seen the sea, the sand and the Phuket Seashell Museum!

Dome

GOLDEN PEARL FROM AN INDIAN VOLUTE SHELL.
140 Karats in weight, This piece is the most perfect and beautiful large pearl ever got from this kind of shell [Melo melo (Lightfoot, 1786)]. The mother of pearl got by trawling boat at depths between 40 - 80 meters in the west coast of Phuket Is., Thailand.

LATIAXIS SHELLS
[FAMILY CORALLIOPHILIDAE ]
Cosmopolitan in tropical seas. Latiaxis are parasitic mollusks on corals, feeding on the fluids of the soft - bodied polyps. Many deepwater latiaxis feed on solitary mushroom corals, and each species usually feeds on a single host species of coral. The free - swimming larvae do not metamorphose into shelled bottom crawlers until they come in contact with the proper coral species.

CARRIER - SHELLS
[ FAMILY XENOPHORIDAE ]
The carrier shells are best known for their ability to attach foreign material such as stones, shells and pieces of coral onto the upper surfaces of their own shells. These snails live on sand and rubble bottoms, feeding on organic matter and foraminiferans collected from the substrate beneath the rim of their shell.

DELPHINULAS
[ FAMILY ANGARIIDAE ]
Delphinula shells are highly variable in form, most of them are deepwater shells and usually collected by tangle nets in 450 to 600 feet in the Philippines. And some species live in shallow water on reef rocks where they feed on algae. Animal has large foot.

TOP SHELLS
[ FAMILY TROCHIDAE ]
The top shells are a large family with more than 600 species found throughout the world in a number of habitats. Most top shells prefer sheltered rocky reefs or tide pools or the broad blades of seagrasses where they can scrape away algae and deposits of diatoms and other detritus as food.

LEFT - HANDED NOBLE VOLUTE
The noble volute [Cymbiola nobilis (Lightfoot, 1786)]. lives in littoral zone down to the depth of about 100 meters. Carnivores, hunting other mollusks found in the same sandy habitats of the species. Distributed in the Gulf of Siam and the South China Sea. Most mollusks, so as the noble volute, are naturally have right - handed (or dextral) shells, except in few species which naturally have left - handed (or sinistral) shells, especially in land & tree snails. The specimen shown here in the middle is the first and only left - handed noble volute found & known until today. Specimen got by trawling boats in the Gulf of Siam, Thailand.

VASE SHELLS
[FAMILY TURBINELLIDAE]
The vase shells have 3 to 5 strong, Squarish, spiral teeth on the columella. Most species are grouped together in a single family because of similarities in anatomy and fossil lineage rather than the more superficial shell shape. It is an ancient family reaching back 40 - 50 million years. The living species feed mostly on marine worms and a few on clams. Eggs are laid in horny, circular capsules.

FREAK SHELLS
These freaks meaning the shells which have unusual shapes. For examples, specimens with more or less numbers of their fingers or spines, distorted or turriculated spire, but not include left - handed (sinistral), albino, and hybrid specimens. Freak shells are hard to obtain and expensive as collectors' s items. Specimens shown here are from many countries and some of them were donated to the museum by Mr. Andre Weber, a swiss shell collector.

TURBAN AND STAR SHELLS
[SUBFAMILY ASTRAEINAE, FAMILY TURBINIDAE]
Most turbans are top - shaped snails, usually with thick shells, an iridescent interior, and usually with a shelly operculum that seals the aperture. Most species feeding on marine algae and live in tropical seas. Star shells live in deep water on a flat bottom of soft, muddy ooze. The radiating spines increase the surface area of the shell to prevent the mollusk from sinking in the mud. Most species are from the Philippines or Japan.

FAMILY PLEUROTOMARIIDAE
[SLIT SHELLS]
The most primitive form of gastropod, first occuring in the Cambrian Period, 500 million years ago. Large, conical shells with slit and slit band on outer edge of body whorl. Animal with small, thin, round, horny, multispiral operculum. Slit shells are limited to deep water, and most are quite rare in collections. The slit in the last whorl allows waste water to escape from the mantle chamber. Slit shells are highly specialized predators on sponges and not evolutionary relics as has often been assumed.

Fossils

CHLAMYS ACUTUS
Large piece of granular limestone with Chlamys acutus, Miocene Epoch, Burdigalian, app. 12 million years old, from Lacoste near Avignon in France.

ARIETITES BUCKLANDI
Arietites bucklandi, a fossil ammonite, Lower Jurassic, app.180 million years old, from the construction of the road "Bundesautobah 27" between Hechingen and Engstlatt in Baden Württemberg , Germany.

CAMPANILE GIGANTEUM
Large fossil gastropod, Eocene, Lutetian, app. 35 million years old, from the Paris Basin, Damery, France.

TITANITES GIGANTEUS
Titanites giganteus, upper Jurassic, Portlandian, app. 150 million years, Purbeck Marble Quarries, from Dorset, England.

ARIETITES BUCKLANDI WITH
ARIETITES PINGUIS (?) FRAGMENT
Lower Jurassic, app. 180 million years old, from the construction of the road "Bundesautobah 27" between Hechingen and Engstlatt in Baden Württemberg , Germany.

Nautilus sp.
Upper Jurassic, Callovian, app.150 million years old, from Poitiers, Vienne, France.

Asteroceras sp.
An ammonite from Jurassic Period, Lower Lias, app.180 million years old, from Scunthorpe in England.The zig - zag lines are called sutures[They are the edges of the walls between the chambers].

ORTHOCERATITES & GONIATITES
Large brown piece of limestone with polished Orthoceratites [Straight, cone - shaped, maybe Orthoceras sp.] and goniatites [primitive group of ammonites, Clymenia sp., Devonian, app. 380 million years old, from Imouzzer, Morocco.

FOSSIL LAND TURTLE
Oligocene Epoch, Chadron Formation, app. 30 million years old, from South Dakota, U.S.A.

LARGE GREY PIECE OF LIMESTONE WITH
POLISHED GONIATITES
[primitive ammonites]
These polished ammonite shells from Morocco display the zigzag borders of each partition, or septum, between adjacent chambers.

LARGE GROUP OF "ORTHOCERATITES"
Approximately 100 pieces of straight Orthoceratites and 7 pieces of coiled Goniatites. The first ammonites had straight shells and appeared during The Devonian Period around 400 million years ago. This large piece is app. 380 million years old, Devonian Period, from Imouzzer, Morocco.

TRILOBITE
[CLASS TRILOBITA, PHYLUM ARTHROPODA]
This well - known group of extinct organisms occurs in strata as old as the Cambrian period and disappear from the fossil record during the Permian period. Detailed study of their structure and the type of rocks in which they are found as fossils indicates that they probably lived on or near the sea bed.