Shells

There is a vast number of different kinds of sea shells all around the world produced by an equally great variety of sea creatures; far too many to be able to generalize on. Only two will be touched on here. I encourage you to search for more information about sea shells on the web.

The first shell pictured here is a conch (pronounced "konk") shell.

Usually identified as a queen conch in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, the conch is a type of snail. It is used as a food source throughout the region and is popular enough that the queen conch population is under serious pressure. The shell can be used as a musical instrument by drilling a hole near the apex of the spiral end and blowing through it. Though rare, conch pearls do exist.

It is easy to forget that conch shells aren't just decorative items but the former homes of living creatures. This short video shows a living conch. It's eyes are at the end of the two thin stalks.

The nautilus is another fascinating creature. It's closest relatives are the octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. Its shell is a smoothly rounded shape on the outside but is divided into logarithmic sections on the inside as shown below:

The tiny "newborn" nautilus starts out in the inner-most portion of the shell. Its outer shell grows at it does. When it grows to a certain size, It moves out of the center, sealing away the space it formerly occupied and filling it with air that helps the nautilus to maintain buoyancy for swimming in the water. It does this repeatedly, making the inner landscape the series of chambers seen in the right-hand photo. A famous poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. titled The Chambered Nautilus was inspired by this shell. I leave it to you to look it up if you wish.

Thanks to Vickie Gilmore, I learned about Adriaen Coorte (fl. 1665 to 1707). He was a Dutch painter of still lifes, several of which were of shells. A few of his paintings are shown below. The shells in Coorte's paintings aren't identified, but see if you can figure out what they are or at least resemble in some fashion.