Hard shell purple bug at the coast of Puerto Rico Thu, Feb 26,
2009 at 7:12 PM I was staying at a hotel on the east coast of
the island of Puerto Rico and went to the shore to look at the
ocean at around midday. This thing was purple, had a hard shell,
did not move at all, about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. It
was withing the rocks. This was in summer 2006. East coast of
Puerto Rico The creature in your photograph is a Chiton. Chitons
are primitive marine molluscs that have shells composed of 8
plates. The shells provide protection against waves which enable
Chitons to survive on stormy rocky coasts. Chitons are sometimes
called Sea Cradles. Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 5:58 AM Hi Daniel, Ah,
another mollusk! This is Acanthopleura granulata (Gmelin, 1791),
the West Indian fuzzy chiton. The shell plates of this chiton
are actually brownish and are usually very eroded. The
pink/purple color on this one is due to a layer of encrusting
calcareous red algae. For more info see the Wikipedia article
(which I put togethe