Ever spot tiny ‘horns’ on a Texas beach? They belong to an elusive squid species



Chacour Koop
Fri, September 10, 2021, 

If you’re a beachcomber with a good eye, there’s a chance you’ve spotted a tiny, curled “horn” in the sand.

So, what sea creature is it from?

Padre Island National Seashore shared a photo Friday of the milky-colored shell found last week on the barrier island near Corpus Christi, Texas.

“If you’ve found one of these on the seashore while beachcombing, consider yourself very lucky!” Padre Island National Seashore posted on Facebook. “Why? Because you didn’t pick up a shell that an animal lived in, you picked up a shell that was inside an animal!”

The shell belongs to a ram’s horn squid and it helps the creature control buoyancy deep in the ocean, experts said.

“Because it is so buoyant, even after the squid has died, the ram’s horn shells can still float all the way up to shore,” the post said.

The shells are typically about 1 inch.

“They probably wash up with regular frequency but are hard to find because their milky appearance makes them blend in perfectly with the sand,” a Padre Island National Seashore spokesperson told McClatchy News.

Technically named Spirula spirula, the tiny ram’s horn squid was first filmed in the wild last year by researchers mapping the Great Barrier Reef spotted it with a remotely operated vehicle, LiveScience reported.

“Researchers were all surprised to see this squid as it was nothing like any of us had seen before,” Valerie Cornet, a James Cook University masters student in Australia who researched with the Schmidt Ocean Institute, told LiveScience.