purple dye murex (Bolinus brandaris) (Gastropod) on a beach in Israel, a sea snail. Murex was at one time greatly valued as the source for purple dye.

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purple dye murex (Bolinus brandaris) (Gastropod) on a beach in Israel, a sea snail. Murex was at one time greatly valued as the source for purple dye. It discharges a purple ink from the hypobranchial gland in the mantle cavity as a smoke screen, from behind which it can flee. The Phoenicians, centred on Tyre, gathered the snails, crushed & boiled them with salt for several days to extract the ink. The liquid was allowed to cool & over a period of time the colour changed for yellow to green to blue & then a rich purple. The extraction of the ink & the manufacture of purple cloth made Tyre a household word in the past.

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Size: 5760px × 3840px
Location: Israel
Photo credit: © Alon Meir / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: alonm, animal, aquatic, beach, bolinus, brandaris, breach, dye, dye-murex, exotic, fish, gastropod, invertebrates, israel, israeli, macro, marine, mediterranean, mollusc, mollusca, mollusk, murex, muricidae, natural, nature, psi, purple, rock, sand, sea, sea-snail, seashell, seashore, seaside, shell, shellfish, shells, shore, snail, snails, sp, spiny, spiral, wildlife, zoology