Sharon: I find lots of interesting things on the beach, some of it, I'm not always quite sure what it is...
Sally Thomas: lots of different worm snails, hard corals, barnacles on cockle shell, but I guess you already knew that. I see nothing that resembles an urchin test as suggested, more like a riddles bivalve. Not much help. SallyTerri: top 9 photos have pieces from what I say are Knorr's (or Florida) worm snails. Or these may be actual worm tubes -- some polychaetes form tubes for protection. Hard to be sure without close examination.
Photos 10-19 are of species of hard coral that live in our waters. These are colonial animals, but do not form reefs.
Photos 10, 11, 18 and 19 are of star coral (Astrangia danae) which grows on hard surfaces, including shells.
Photos 12-17 are of ivory bush coral (Oculina arbuscula) which is a branching coral. Each cup (which I think you're calling a "pod") held one individual animal. These animals belong to the phylum Cnidaria and are related to sea anemones and jellies!
Photo 20 looks like an oyster shell with other oysters shells that have been attached to it.
The crossbarred venus looks like it had some coral settle on it, as well as any oyster and/or another bivalve!
Photo 26 -- interesting piece. It could be several things: a piece of sand dollar/keyhole urchin or a piece of a bivalve that has has boring sponge growing on it (and "drilling" those holes through it).
Photo 27 (from the top) is the cockle with some coral that settled on it.
Photo 28 is part of a test of a sea urchin (an echinoderm).
Photos 29-32 are of a cockle with a barnacle that settled on it.
(remember that barnacles are crustaceans.)
You're finding lots of cool stuff!
Terri K. Hathaway
Marine Education Specialist
North Carolina Sea Grant
http://www.ncseagrant.org/
At first, I thought this was a "ram's horn squid" Spirula spirula but after comparing with the image in the North Carolina Seashells field guide, I'm not sure what this interesting shell is.
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Click for 320px image (At the top of the above photo and below, are two similar shell-like formations, only thinner.)
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Click for 320px image (close up to one of these pods, see the fine detail inside).
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Click for 320px image (This was something I found that looks more like a fossil than a shell. It's texture and surface looks more like cement that was shaped inside a shell, and it has some shells stuck inside it (above).
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Click for 320px image (This poor crossbarred venus had quite a variety of guests stuck to it).
Click for 320px image (Some of the odds and ends I've found on the beach).
Click for 320px image (More of that crossbar venus).
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Click for 320px image (I find these often on the beach. They are flat and smooth on one side with holes covering the other.)
Click for 320px image (Here's a cockleshell with a couple guests stuck to it).
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Click for 320px image (Another cockleshell with a guest.)
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