Seashell Identification: Lettered Olive

Tightly curled, long and smooth, the olive shell is fairly easy to identify. The shell is known as the "lettered" or "netted" or "gibbosa" according to it's appearance. All of these shells will be shiny and smooth, unless you find a very worn one such as some that I have. The smoothness of the shell is created by the animal's "foot" or mantle,that covers the outside as it moves along the sandy ocean bottom.

These were found on the eastern gulf shores of the United States in Florida.

The Lettered Olive (Olive Sayana) has markings that supposedly remotely resemble the alphabet - whose alphabet? I don't know...but this is where it gets it's name.

The Netted olive (Oliva reticularis) has zig zag markings that resemble a net. It's coloring is whitish or cream colored and it's markings are reddish tan.

The brown version is called the "Gibbosa" olive. This reference page says that this brown shell is commonly found in shallow water in the Indian Ocean and along the northern shores of New Zealand and Venezuela and to "just south of the Sea of Japan". But mine shown in this picture was found in Florida.

Read more - and see lots more photos of- the Lettered Olive at this site.

The Olive Shell family is quite large and is made up of around 300 species found in all warm ocean waters and some are also found in temperate waters. Most on the east coast are found along the shore from North Carolina to Florida and Texas. The largest of these is the Lettered Olive which can grow up to almost 3 inches in length.

On the west coast of the U. S. you will find the Purple Dwarf Olive, the San Pedro Dwarf Olive, and the Baetic Dwarf Olive. All are fairly small, but the Purple Dwarf can be up to 1 1/2 inches long.
*See more pictures of Dwarf Olives

Patricia Mitchell writes in her article Lettered Olive Shell: Scribblings on the Surface: "There is an especially desirable variety of the Lettered Olive Shell which has no writing on it, and is a beautiful yellow or perhaps a warm brown shade."

I've always wondered if the shell in the center of this photo (below) is one of the desirable yellow or golden lettered olives.