THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE SEASHELL

One of the rarest sea shells in the world and currently the most expensive is the cowrie gastropod Sphaerocypraea incomparabilis (Briano, 1993). A single shell is worth $20,000! Three views of the shell are shown below: apertural, dorsal, and right-lateral side of a modern-day specimen of S. incomparabilis. Many cowrie shells are beautiful and eye-catching, but the distinctive coloration of the shell of this species is definitely memorable. 

The original genus name of this shell was Chimaeria. This cowrie, which ranges in size from 69 to 93 mm in length, lives in deep water in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Mozambique, but its exact location has not been established. The few known specimens are currently housed in museums. Most likely, more specimens will be found in the future, and, if so, the price will fall dramatically. That is what happened to the cone shell Conus gloriamaris, formerly one of the rarest and most expensive shell in the world, until the habitat of this gastropod was found in 1967 (see my previous post of June 30, 2023 entitled: “Three Famous Shells.”) 

Sphaerocypraea incomparabilis belongs to family Eocypraeidae; a family believed to have been extinct for the last 20 million years, until it was recognized in the fossil record (i.e., early Eocene of France). Thus, S. incomparabilis is a “living fossil.”