Sand Mason Worm 25cm (10in)

A worm with a pink/red or brown body, which is rarely seen as it lives below the sand. The only piece of this worm that we can usually see is a tube made of shell debris and sand grains that pokes above the sand. At the end of this tube, small branches support the worm’s sticky, fine tentacles, which are used to capture food particles.

Hermit Crab 10cm (4in) long

This crab lives in a shell to protect its’ soft abdomen. It drags the shell along by using its front two pairs of legs, which are also used to scavenge for food.

Sandhoppers 2cm (¾ in)

The Sandhopper is a member of the crustacean family, which also includes crabs, prawns and shrimps. They live and feed among the rotting seaweed on the strandline and when disturbed they flick their tails and jump, hence their name Sand ‘ hoppers’.

Masked Crab 4cm (1½ in) long

The shell of this crab looks like a lion’s face, hence its name. By day it remains buried in the sand with only its antennae and parts of its claws visible on the surface. The two antennae zip together to allow water to pass to its gills and filter out the sand. It feeds on shrimps, worms and other small creatures. When threatened it digs itself backward under the sand.

Lugworm 20cm (8in) long

The Lugworm lives in a double-ended burrow. The front entrance is a small saucer-like depression in the sand, which helps food to fall down the burrow to the worm. The worm then swallows the sand and filters out the food. To get rid of the waste sand the worm moves to the rear shaft of the burrow and squirts the sand out, like toothpaste coming out of a tube. Above the sand this looks like a twisted rope. The worm may live in its burrow for weeks unless disturbed by bait diggers.

Tellin 2cm (¾ in)

The Tellin is a bivalve (it has two parts to its shell), and when it is washed up on the beach it looks like a pair of butterfly wings. When the tide is in the tellin sticks two long tubes (siphons) above the sand. The longest tube sucks in food and the other gets rid of the waste material (e.g.sand). When the tide goes out, the tellin pulls the tubes back inside its shell. Tellins can live in dense groups of upto 1,000 per square yard.

Razor Shell 10cm (4in) long

Razor shells are very sensitive to vibrations, and if you walk along the beach they can feel your footsteps and will dig down into the sand to avoid being found. They have a large muscular foot, which they thrust down into the sand and use as an anchor while the rest of the shell follows. They will repeat this action very fast until the animal feels safe again.

Thamnopora (fossilised coral – 375 million years old)

During the Devonian period (345 – 395 million years ago) the waters around Torbay were an area of shallow coral sea. We know this due to the presence of thamnopora coral in the limestone pebbles that are washed up on our local beaches. It is a unique tabulate coral, which forms massive colonies. Corals will not develop below 20ºc, so we can assume that the Torbay area at this time had a much warmer climate. The warmer seas would have supported more tropical marine creatures such as the butterfly fish and moray eel, which would have lived among the extensive areas of coral reef.