Oliva Sayana, Lettered Olive

Oliva Sayana, Lettered Olive

Photos of the Lettered Olive, scientific classification and general information on habitat and range..

Lettered Olive Oliva sayana

Olive Shaped - olives (Olividae)

Lettered Olive Oliva sayana (Ravenel)
Description: (2 1/2 inches) Smooth, shiny, cylindrical shell with a short spire. Narrow aperture extending almost length of shell, continuing around the bottom and ending in a notch on the other side. Suture V-cut and deep. Lower part of whorl just above the suture ends extends outward and then at a sharp shoulder drops into the suture. No operculum.
Color: Cream or grayish exterior with reddish brown zigzag markings.
Habitat: Lives in near-shore waters on shallow sand flats near inlets. Occasionally to commonly washed onto ocean beaches.
Range: North Carolina to Gulf states.
Notes: This species is named for its dark surface markings that resemble letters. A carnivore, it captures bivalves and small crustaceans with its foot and takes them below the sand surface to digest. Its presence is sometimes detected at very low tides by the trails it leaves when it crawls below the surface on semi-exposed sand flats. Females lay floating, round egg capsules that are often found in beach drift. Young are free swimming. Colonists and early Native Americans made jewelry from these shells.
Source: Seashells of North Carolina, North Carolina Sea Grant College Program

These are photographs of my lettered olive collection. To date, I do not own any of the brown olive species (it is not noted to commonly wash onshore). It's beautiful marble-like appearance makes it one of my favorite shells.

Lettered Olive #01
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Lettered Olive #02
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Lettered Olive #03
Lettered Olive #04
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Lettered Olive #05
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Olive Shaped - olives (Olividae) Brown Olive Oliva reticularis bifasciata (Kuster) Description: (2 1/2 inches) Very similar to the lettered olive except this species in North Carolina waters has (1) a less pointed spire, (2) a channel suture not deeply V-cut and (3) a lower whorl portion that runs almost directly into the connecting suture. Also compare suture lines (see Color). Color: Similar to lettered olive except in this shell (1) the pattern is lighter and more reticulated than zigzag, (2) the color is yellowish and (3) brown spots that run from the suture "thread" or "bleed" down the shell (in the lettered olive, they do not. Habitat: Lives in deep offshore waters. Found by divers near shipwrecks. Collected on sandy bottom near lions-paw scallops at 100-foot depth off Wrightsville Beach. From Wrightsville Beach to just above Cape Lookout, seems restricted to the edge of the continental shelf at about 300-foot depths. Range: Cape Lookout, North Carolina to West Indies. Notes: Hatched young crawl away. Source: Seashells of North Carolina, North Carolina Sea Grant College Program Photo by Scott D. Taylor

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Lettered Olive #06
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Lettered Olive #07
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Lettered Olive #08
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Lettered Olive #09
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Lettered Olive #10
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Unusually dark variety found on the beach. Enlarge images to 320 pixels by clicking thumbnails

 

Lettered Olive #11
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Lettered Olive #12
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Olive Shaped - olives (Olividae) Variable Dwarf Olive Olivella mutica (Say) Description: (1/2 inch) Small, smooth, shiny, olive-shaped shell. Spire almost half the total shell length. Narrow, triangular aperture with a narrow upper canal and a wider lower canal. Inner aperture wall with a thickened callus that extends almost to the suture of the previous whorl. No operculum. Color: Creamy white exterior with about three deep reddish brown spiral bands. Occasionally solid brown. Habitat: Lives on the sandy bottom of sounds, inlets and offshore areas. Common on sound and ocean beaches. Range: North Carolina to Bahamas. Notes: This species is a carnivore. Females lay dome-shaped egg capsules on hard surfaces. Hatched young crawl away. It is closely related to the lettered olive. Of the six possible Olivellas off the North Carolina coast, this species may be the most common and easiest to identify. Source: Seashells of North Carolina, North Carolina Sea Grant College Program Photo by Scott D. Taylor

References and Further Reading

More Lettered Olive Photos

Lettered Olive seashells Oliva sayana
Oliva sayana Commonly found along the West Coast Florida. If found live or fresh dead the shell can have a great shiny luster. This often fades as the shell

Sanibel Shells: Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
Video clip of live Oliva sayana Taken from Mollusks in Action video. Return to Oliva sayana. © The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum.

Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834 Lettered Olive
Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834 Corded Form. large specimen. corded specimen ... Oliva sayana Ravenel, 1834 - Orange Form. gold [form citrina Johnson, 1911]

South Carolina Symbols, Shell: Lettered Olive
The Lettered Olive, Oliva sayana, was designated the official shell of the State by Act No. 360, 1984. Dr. Edmund Ravenel of Charleston, South Carolina

Oliva sayana citrina
Oliva sayana citrina. Johnson, 1911, Citrine Olive. Taxonomic Information. Class, GASTROPODA. Order, CAENOGASTROPODA. SuperFamily, VOLUTACEA

State Shell-Lettered Olive -www.scstatehouse.net
Lettered Olive Shell, The Lettered Olive, Oliva Sayana, was designated the official shell of the State by Act No. 360, 1984.

Lettered olive : Oliva sayana
Kingdom : Animal Phylum : Molluscs Class : Gastropoda Order : Family : Genus : Oliva Species : sayana. Description:. Lettered olive, Photo by David Byres

(Family) -OLIVIDAE OLIVINAE
Oliva sayana - Oliva sayana citrina Oliva sayana sarasotensis - Oliva sayana texana Oliva scripta - Oliva scripta trujilloi

Oliva sayana
Oliva sayana. Ravenel, 1834, Lettered Olive, SE USA. Taxonomic Information.
Class, GASTROPODA. Order, CAENOGASTROPODA. SuperFamily, VOLUTACEA

The Paleobiology Database
family, Olividae, Latreille 1825. genus, Oliva, Bruguière 1789. species, sayana
Taxonomic history. No taxonomic history is available for Oliva sayana.