Abstract
A marine spiral tubeworm, called Spirorbis, is usually overlooked by beachcombers and collectors because it is only about 3 mm in diameter. This worm secretes a hard tube of calcium carbonate around its body which is coiled like a miniature snail and could easily be mistaken for one. It does not crawl around in mud, but attaches its tube usually to some hard object such as rocks and seashells, or sometimes to softer seaweed.