Sinistrofulgur Perversum, otherwise known as the Lightning Whelk, is a mollusk commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico. While many might mistake the Lightning Whelk’s size as its most unique feature—they can grow up to 16 inches—the Lightning Whelk’s defining characteristic is actually its sinistral shell, a “left-handed” shell whose opening is on the left when the shell spire points up. Unlike more common “right-handed” gastropods, examining a Lightning Whelk for the first time produces a feeling of the uncanny; the eerie feeling that accompanies discovering something familiar, but different. Tens of thousands of lightning whelks litter Gulf Coast beaches each year, but lightning whelk artifacts from over 3,000 years ago have been found as far away as Kentucky. Historical accounts represent that the shell’s unique counterclockwise helix—the same direction of the increasingly powerful hurricanes that are reshaping Florida’s coastline—was often interpreted as a metaphor for a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.