A sea shell or a sea shell , also known only as shell , is a hard and protective outer layer created by marine animals.. The skin is part of the animal's body. Empty shells are often found stranded on shore by coastal explorers. The shell is empty because the animal has died and its soft parts have been eaten by other animals or have decomposed.
The term shells usually refers to the exoskeleton of an invertebrate (animal without a backbone), and usually consists of calcium carbonate or chitin. Most of the shells found on shore are marine molluscs, partly because they are usually made of calcium carbonate, and survive better than chitin shells.
In addition to the mollusk shells, other shells that can be found on the beach are barnacles, horseshoe crabs, and brakiopods. Marine annelid worms in the Serpulidae family make a shell that is a tube made of calcium carbonate cemented to another surface. The shells of the sea urchins are called tests , and the shellfish and shellfish lobster are called exuviae . While most shells are external, some cephalopods have an internal shell.
Shells have been used by humans for various purposes throughout history and pre-history. However, seashells are not the only shell types; in various habitats, there are shells of freshwater animals such as freshwater clams and freshwater snails, and shells of land snails.
Video Seashell
Terminology
When the word "clamshell" refers only to the shells of marine molluscs, then studying shellfish is a part of the konkologi. Conchologists or serious collectors who have a scientific bias are generally careful not to disrupt populations and living habitats: although they may collect some living animals, most responsible collectors do not often over-collect or disrupt ecosystems.
The study of all mollusk animals (and shells) is known as malacology; a person who studies molluscs is known as a malacologist.
Maps Seashell
Genesis
Sea shells are commonly found on drifting beaches, which are natural detritus stranded along the shoreline by the waves and waves. Shellfish are often stranded on empty, clean beaches, the animals are dead.
Empty shells are often taken by beach thieves. However, the majority of shells offered for commercial sale have been collected alive (often in large quantities) and then killed and cleaned, especially for commercial trade. Such large-scale exploitation sometimes has a strong negative impact on local ecosystems, and can sometimes significantly reduce the distribution of endangered species.
Molluscan shells
The word seashell is often used only for marine mollusks shells. Marine mollusks shells are familiar to coastal explorers and thus most likely to be called "seashell shells" are bivalve sea shell species (or shells), gastropod (or snails), scaphopods (or tusk skins), polyplacophorans (or chitons) , and cephalopods (such as nautilus and spirula). These shells are very often the most commonly encountered, both in the wild, and sold as decorative objects.
Marine gastropods and bivalve species are larger than inland and freshwater species, and their shells are often larger and stronger. The shells of marine species also often have more statues and more colors, though this is not always the case.
In the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the planet, there are more species of colorful, large, shallow sea of ​​shell molluscs than there are in temperate zones and areas closer to the poles.
Although there are a number of species of large shell mollusks, there are a large number of very small species as well, see micromollusks.
Not all mollusks are marine. There are many land and freshwater mollusks, see for example snails and freshwater bivalves. In addition, not all mollusks have an external shell: some molluscs such as cephalopods (squid and octopus) have internal shells, and many mollusks do not have shells, see for example snails and nudibranchs.
Bivalvia
Bivalves are often the most common shells that wash on the big sandy beach or in sheltered lagoons. Sometimes they can be very numerous. Very often two valves become separated.
There are more than 15,000 species of bivalves living in the sea and fresh water. Examples of bivalves are shellfish, shellfish, shellfish, and oysters. The majority of bivalves consist of two identical shells held together by flexible hinges. The animal body is protected protectively within these two shells. Bivalves that do not have two shells have one shell or do not have a shell at all. The shell is made of calcium carbonate and is formed in layers by the secretions of the mantle. Bivalves, also known as pelecypods, are mostly filter feeders; through their gills, they draw water, where the trapped food particles are trapped. Some bivalves have an eye and an open circulatory system. Bivalves are used throughout the world as food and as a source of pearls. Larvae of some freshwater mussels can be harmful to fish and can penetrate wood.
Shell Beach, Western Australia, is a beach made entirely of clam shells Fragum erugatum .
Gastropoda
Certain species of gastropod shells (sometimes sea shells) can sometimes be common, stranded on sandy beaches, and also on beaches surrounded by rocky marine habitats.
Polyplacophorans
Plates or Chiton valves often wash on the beach in rocky areas where chiton is common. The Chiton shell, which consists of eight separate plates and a belt, usually separates not long after death, so it is almost always found as an unarticulated plate. Plates of larger chiton species are sometimes known as "butterfly shells" because of their shape.
Cephalopoda
Only a few species of cephalopods that have shells (both internal and external) are sometimes found stranded on shore.
Some cephalopods like Sepia , squid, have large internal shells, cuttlefish, and these are often washed on the beach in parts of the world where squid is common.
Spirula spirula is a squid that resembles deep water squid. It has a small internal shell (about 1 in or 24 mm) but is very light and light. This cubicle shell floats very well and therefore washes easily and is familiar to beach lovers in the tropics.
Nautilus is the only genus of cephalopod that has a well-developed external shell. Females of the genus Cephalopoda Argonauta make eggshells that are sometimes washed in tropical beaches and are referred to as "nautilus paper".
The largest group of shellfish cephalopods, Ammonite, is extinct, but its shells are very common in certain areas as fossils.
Seashells Molluscan is used by other animals
Empty molluscan shells are a strong and usually available "free" power source, often found easily on the beach, in the intertidal zone, and in shallow subtidal zones. Thus they are sometimes used by animals other than humans for various purposes, including for protection (such as on hermit crabs) and for construction.
Molluscs
- The carrier shells in the Xenophoridae family are sea-shelled gastropods, large sea slugs. Most species of xenophoride cement a number of objects to the edge of their shells as they grow. These objects are sometimes small pebbles or other hard detritus. Often bivalve shells or small gastropods are used, depending on what is available on a particular substrate where the snail itself lives. It is unclear whether these shell attachments function as camouflage, or whether they are meant to help prevent the shell sinking into soft substrate.
- Little octopuses sometimes use empty shells as a kind of cave to hide, or hold shells around themselves as a form of protection like a temporary fortress.
Invertebrates
- Most hermet crab genera use or "wear" empty gastropod shells during their lifetime, to protect their soft stomachs, and to have strong shells to be pulled in if attacked by predators. Each individual hermit crab is forced to find another gastropod shell on a regular basis, each time it grows too large for the current use.
- Some species of hermit crabs live on land and can be found some distance from the sea, including the tropical genus Coenobita .
Conchology
There are many popular books and field guides on the matter of shell-gathering. Although there are a number of books on freshwater soil and molluscs, the majority of popular books emphasize, or focus exclusively on, marine mollusks shells. Both the science of studying mollusk shells and hobbies collect and classify them are known as konkologi. The boundaries between professionals and amateur enthusiasts are often not well-defined in this subject, as many amateurs have contributed, and continue to contribute to, greater conocology and malacology. Many shell collectors belong to "shell clubs" where they can meet other people who share their interests. Large numbers of amateurs collect marine mollusk shells, and this is partly because many shells are washing away empty on the beach, or living in intertidal or sub-ebb and flow zones, and are therefore easily found and preserved without much special means of expensive equipment or equipment. Some shell collectors find their own materials and keep precise records, or simply buy "specimen shells", meaning shells that have full collection data: information including how, when, where, in what habitat, and by whom, the shells are collected. On the other hand, some collectors buy more commercially sold exotic shells, many of which have little data, or none at all. For museum scientists, having full collection data (when, where, and by whom is collected) with specimens is much more important than having the shell correctly identified. Some shell collection owners hope to be able to donate their collections to major natural history or zoological museums at some point, however, shells with little or no collecting data are usually of no value to science, and are unlikely to be accepted by a large museum. Regardless of the damage to the shell that may have occurred before was collected, the shell could also be damaged when they are stored or displayed. For an example of a rather serious type of damage, see Byne's illness.
Shell club
There are a number of clubs or societies made up of people united by common interest in the shell. In the US, these clubs are more common in the southern coastal regions, such as Florida and California, where marine fauna are rich in species.
Identify
Sea shells are usually identified by consultations on general or regional shell or collecting guidelines, and certain scientific books on different taxa from shell molluscs (monographs) or "iconography" (limited text - especially photographs or other illustrations). (For some titles on this subject in the US see the book list at the foot of this article.) Identification of species levels is generally achieved by examining illustrations and written descriptions, not by using Identification keys, as is often the case in identifying other invertebrate plants and phyla. The construction of functional locks for the identification of sea mollusc shells to the species level can be very difficult, due to the great variability in many species and families. Identification of specific individual species is often very difficult, even for specialists in certain families. Some species can not be distinguished by shell characters only.
Many smaller and more vague mollusk species (see micromollusk) are undiscovered and named. In other words, they have not been distinguished from the same species and are given a scientific name (binomial) in an article in a journal recognized by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenography (ICZN). A large number of new species are published in the scientific literature each year. There are currently about 100,000 species of molluscs around the world.
Non-marine "seashells"
The term seashell is also loosely applied to non-marine mollusc shells, for example by people walking on the banks of lakes and rivers using the term for the freshwater mollusk shells they encounter. Sea shells purchased from tourist shops or dealers can include a variety of freshwater and terrestrial shells as well. Non-marine goods on offer may include large and colorful tropical soil shells, freshwater snail shells, and hairy freshwater pearl shells. This can confuse collectors, as non-marine shells are often not included in their reference books.
Cultural significance
Currency
Sea shells have been used as a medium of exchange in many places, including many Indian Ocean islands and the Pacific Ocean, also in North America, Africa, and the Caribbean.
- The most commonly used shellfish species are Monetaria moneta <, â €
- Many tribes and nations across the African continent have historically used cowries as their medium of exchange. The Cowry is outstanding, historically, alongside metal coins and goods, and foreign currency. Being a long-lasting and easy-to-carry cow makes a very profitable currency.
- Some indigenous peoples of America use shells for wampum and hair pipes. Native American wampum belt
Tools
Shellfish is often used as a tool, because of their strength and variety of shapes.
- The giant Kima (Family Tridacnidae) has been used as a bowl, and when large enough, even as a bath tub and a baptismal pool.
- Melo melo , "bailer volute", so named because the native Australians used it to save their boat.
- Many different bivalve species have been used as scrapers, knives, clips, and other tools, because of their shape.
- Some marine gastropods have been used for oil lamps, oil poured in shell holes, and siphonal canals that serve as a holder for the axis.
Horticulture
Since shells are in some areas that are widely available sources of calcium carbonate, shellfish-like shells are sometimes used as a soil conditioner in horticulture. The shells are broken or milled into small pieces to have the desired effect of raising the pH and increasing the calcium content in the soil.
Religion and spirituality
Shellfish has played a part in religion and spirituality, sometimes even as a ritual object.
- In Christianity, the shell is considered the symbol of Saint James, see Pecten jacobaeus .
- In Hinduism the left-handed shell of Turbinella pyrum (shankha suci) is considered sacred to Lord Vishnu. The man who found the left-handed shell shell (which circles to the left) is also sacred to Vishnu. Seashells also play an important role in Buddhism.
- Cows are often considered a symbol of female fertility. They are often treated as true fertility charms. The shell dorsum resembles a pregnant belly, and the bottom of the shell resembles the vulva. In the state of Kerala in South India, dogs are used to make astrological predictions.
- In the Santeria religion, shells are used for divination.
- The ancient Peruvian Moche culture worships animals and the sea, and often describes shells in their art.
- In Christianity, the upper portion of the sand dollar represents the Star of Bethlehem leading the Wise to the manger of Christ. Outside the "stars" you will see Easter Lily, the sign of the Resurrection of Jesus. There are four holes that symbolize the hole in God's hands and feet. The middle hole is His Sacred Heart wound by the Longinus spear. On the other side of the sand dollars, you will see Poinsettia. Lastly, if you break the sand dollar, five pigeons will come out, Peace and Joy doves.
Musical instruments
Shells have been used as musical instruments, wind instruments for hundreds or even thousands of years. Most often a large sea slug shell is used, as a trumpet, by cutting a hole at the top of the shell tower or cutting the tip of the top of the tower altogether. Various types of large gastropod sea shells can be converted into "blowing shells", but the most commonly used species used as "snail" trumpets are:
- The sacred sound, Turbinella pyrum , is known in India as shankha. In Tibet it is known as "dung-dkar".
- Triton scallops are also known as Triton trichons Charonia tritonis used as trumpets in Melanesian and Polynesian cultures as well as in Korea and Japan. In Japan, this kind of trumpet is known as horagai. In Korea known as nagak. On some Polynesian islands known as " pu ".
- The Queen Conch Strombus gigas , has been used as a trumpet in the Caribbean.
Children in some cultures often say the myth that you can hear the sound of the sea by holding the seashell to the ear. This is because of the resonance effect of the shells.
Personal jewelry
Whole shellfish or parts of sea shells have been used as jewelry or in other jewelry form since prehistoric times. Mother pearls are historically mainly marine clam products, although recently some pearl mothers came from freshwater shells. Also see pearls.
- The shell necklace has been found in the Stone Age graveyard as far as the mainland in the Dordogne Valley in France.
- Shells are often used intact and drilled, so they can be screwed like beads, or cut into various shapes. Sometimes shells can be found that have been "drilled" by predatory snails from the Naticidae family. Whole shell necklaces are made by Aboriginal women of Tasmania for over 2,600 years. Necklaces are a significant cultural tradition that is still practiced by Palawa female elders. The shells used include pearls of green and blue-green pearl maireeners, brown and white brown rice, black cat teeth and pink button shells.
- Naturally, beachworn, a "peak" cone shell (the cracked top of the minaret, often with a hole at the end) can serve as a bead without further modification. In Hawaii, these natural beads are traditionally collected from coastal waves to make shell pearl jewelry. Because it is difficult to get the large number of beachworn peak cones that occur naturally, almost all modern shell pearl jewelry uses cheaper imitations, cut from thin shells of other mollusk species, or even made of plastic.
- Shells have been historically and still made into, or inserted into, necklaces, pendants, beads, earrings, buttons, brooches, rings, hair combs, belts, and other uses.
- The great sea-snail "sea slug" shell, the Cypraecassis rufa's scientific name, is historically, and still is, used to make valuable precious acting.
- Mother of pearls from many shells including species in the Trochidae family, Turbinidae, Haliotidae, and various pearl bivalves, often used in jewelry, buttons, etc.
- In London, Pearly Kings and Queens traditionally wore clothing covered in patterns consisting of hundreds of "pearl buttons", in other words, buttons made of mother of pearl or nacre. But in recent years, the majority of "pearl buttons" are copies made of pearlescent plastic.
Crafts
"Valentines Sailor" is a 19th century decorative memento made in the Caribbean, and often bought by sailors to give to their loved ones in their country eg in England. This Valentine consists of a complex arrangement of small shells glued into an attractive symmetrical design, encased in a wooden box frame (usually octagonal) hinged. The patterns used often feature a heart-shaped design, or include the expression of sentimental love described in small shells.
The making of shell artifacts is the practice of Aboriginal women from La Perouse in Sydney, dating back to the 19th century. Shell objects include baby shoes, jewelry boxes and replicas of famous landmarks, including Sydney Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House. The shell tradition begins as Aboriginal women's craft adapted and adapted to the tourist souvenir market, and which is now considered to be high art.
Architectural decoration
Small pieces of colored and colorful shells have been used to create mosaics and inlays, which have been used to decorate walls, furniture and boxes. A large number of sea shells, arranged to form patterns, have been used to decorate mirror frames, furniture, and manmade grottos.
Art
The huge outdoor sculpture in Akkulam from the gastropod seashell is a reference to the sacred shell shells of Turbinella pyrum in India. In 2003, Maggi Hambling designed a 13-foot (4 m) seashell sculpture that stood on the coast of Aldeburgh, in England. The goddess of love, Venus or Aphrodite is often described as traditionally rising from the sea on seashells. In the Birth of Venus (Botticelli) , Botticelli describes the Venusian goddess rising from the ocean on the shell's shell.
Poultry feed
Sea shells found in rivers and rear waters of the west coast of India are used as additives for poultry feed. They are crushed and mixed with maaze and dried fish.
Use
Seashells, namely from bivalves and gastropods, are essentially composed of calcium carbonate. In this sense, they have the potential to be used as raw materials in lime production.
Other sea invertebrate shells
Arthropoda
Many arthropods have sclerites, or hardened body parts, forming rigid exoskeleton mostly made of chitin. In crustaceans, especially those from the Malacostraca class (crabs, shrimp and lobsters, for example), the plates from the outer frame can be incorporated to form more or less rigid carapace. Carapace carcasses of various sea malacostraceans often wash on the beach. Horseshoe crab is the arthropod of the Limulidae family. The shellfish or exuviae of these arachnid relatives are common on the beach drifting in certain areas of the world.
Sea urchin
Some echinoderms such as sea urchins, including sea urchins and sand dollars, have "test" or hard shells. After the animals die, the flesh rots and the thorn falls, and then quite often the empty test washes all over to shore, where it can be found by a beach thief. These tests are fragile and break easily into sections.
Brachiopoda
Brachiopoda, or shell lamps, are very similar to shellfish, but their phyla is not closely related to molluscs. Most of the brachiopoda lines end up during the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and their ecological niche is filled with bivalves. Some of the remaining species of brakiopoda occur in the low intertidal zone and thus can be found alive by coastal explorers.
Annelids
Some polychaetes, marine annelid worms in the Serpulidae family, remove hard tubes made of calcium carbonate, attached to rocks or other shells. This tube resembles, and can be confused with, the shell of marine gastropod molluscs in the Vermetidae family, snail worms.
More more atypical types
Several other categories of marine animals leave remnants that may be considered "sea shells" in the widest possible sense of the word.
Chelonians
Sea turtles have carapace and bone and cartilage plastrons developed from their ribs. Rarely "shell" turtles will clean themselves on the beach.
Hard coral
Hard rock skeletal pieces usually drift on the beaches in areas where corals grow.
The construction of a shell-like coral structure is aided by a symbiotic relationship with the algae class, zooxanthellae. Usually coral polyps will have certain algal species, which will photosynthesize and thus provide energy for corals and assist in calcification, while living in a safe environment and using carbon dioxide and nitrogen waste generated by polyps. Coral bleaching is a disturbance of the balance between polyps and algae, and can cause coral damage and death.
Soft Coral
Soft coral skeletons like gorgonians, also known as sea buffs and sea whips, usually drift to the beach in the tropics after a storm.
Plancton and protistant Plankton and protist
The animal-like animal-like diatom and animal-like diatoms are two forms of plankton that form hard silicone shells. Foraminifera and coccolithophore create a shell known as a "test" made of calcium carbonate. These shells and tests are usually microscopic in size, though in the case of foraminifera, sometimes seen with the naked eye, often resembling miniature mollusk shells.
See also
- Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum
- Gastropoda Shell
- the mollusk shell
- Ocean acidity
- Seashell Resonation
- Seashell's surface, mathematical construction
- Shell wallet
References
Books
- Abbott R. Tucker & amp; S. Peter Dance, 1982, Summary of Seashells, Full color guide for over 4,200 World Sea shells , E.P. Dutton, Inc., New York, ISBN 0-525-93269-0.
- Abbott R. Tucker, 1985,
, 1985, Golden Press, New York, ISBN: 0-307-24410-5. - Abbott, R. Tucker, 1986,
, St. Martin's Press, New York, ISBN 1-58238-125-9. - Abbott, R. Tucker, 1974, American Seashells , Second edition, Van Nostrand Rheinhold, New York, ISBN 0-442-20228-8.
External links
- American Konkologi
- Freshwater shells
- National Museum of Australia The shell necklace is made by Palawa Elder.
- Hohlman Shell Collection
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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