1. A seashell isn't an animal. It’s a portable home for a wide variety of animals. Theanimals that naturally live in these homes are mollusks.
2.Before tackling hermit crabs, let’s get one important fact out ofthe way:molluskscraft only one shell throughout their lifetime.
3.The only exceptions here are hermit crabs. They aren’t mollusks – they’re crustaceans. Despite this, they use seashells too.
4.We mentioned above that cephalopods, like octopi and squids, are mollusks that don’t build a shell. There is one type of octopus, however, that didn’t evolve this way: the Argonaut.
5.Aren’t seashells pretty? They often display a wide array of colors and unique patterns. However, it turns out those beautiful designs aren’t for display only.
6.Found a beautiful seashell while walking down thebeach? Great, but how do you tell what kind of animal it was for?
7. While there are thousands of seashells, you can boil them down to two major types and two general shapes. Let’s discuss the shapes first.
8. The first type is the flat shell. These are common for oysters and clams. More often than not, these are bivalve shells.
9. Did you know the vast majority of shells are dextral? This means their opening is to the right. Only a select few shells are sinistral, meaning they open to the left.
10. Cowry shells functioned ascurrency in places like China, India, and even in the Arabian penunsula.
11.Seashells make for great souvenirs. You’ll find them used as earrings, necklace pendants, or even wallet adornments.
12.Remember while back we mentioned how seashells are great for amplifying ambient sounds? This same property makes them ideal wind instruments.
13.Looking for the ultimate shell destination? There’s a beach that stretches over 74 feet and goes as far down as 32 feet, located in Western Australia.
14.Remember we said mollusks make their shells out of calcium carbonate? This very property also makes shells an amazing ingredient for effective fertilizers.
15.As a matter of fact, newer discoveries hint that Homo Sapiens were not the first ones to convey a sense of art on a wall or shell.