I discovered a little Oxychilus cellarius, also sometimes referred to as Hyalina cellaria (kindly identified by one of my shell club colleagues!) sliming along the mulch under my parsley plants a couple of days ago…

It is not, as I first thought, a native, but was apparently introduced to New Zealand, originally from British Isles and western Europe.

The first time I have found a live one, and was amazed at how blue the animal is. The translucent wee shells are often turned up in under growth when fosiking around in the garden.

This was so exciting! Our shell club had the opportunity to view part of the Auckland Museum’s marine collection last night. The collection is estimated to contain approximately 500,000 specimens and includes both wet and dry specimens.

I made a special request to see echinoderms (urchins and starfish) as I have been very interested in the structure of these animals, they are composed of five sections - a pattern that has been emerging in my crochet.

Here are few photos…

..a freaky sea urchin

..another urchin

..a brittle star

A friend alerted me to this a while ago, but I completely forgot to post it!
Apparently this little baby was ‘discovered’ recently in a auction on e’bay, and was found to be a new species.

Quite exciting stuff, but a little bit concerning as some of these collectable creatures may be the result of illegal dredging, their popularity might just spell bad news for the urchins and other animals in their habitat.

It certainly is beautiful and looks almost as if it’s too unusual to be real, I look forward to learning more about this one…

Read more here on the Guardian website: The Guardian