Beachcombers know that seashells appear in an endless array of colors and shapes, and researchers have just discovered that this variation extends to the molecular level. In fact, each shell is as ...

Why don’t animal’s use wheels in locomotion? Why aren’t blue whales bigger? Why are there no freshwater starfish? Why are there no tree dwelling cephalopods? Why can’t my dog make a decent cocktail?

Scientists have begun to peel back the complex gene networks that control the secretions from the outer layer of cells on the mantle. In the largest study ever performed, the authors generated a ...

Field investigations of living bivalves of the order Arcoida led to the rediscovery of a contradiction to the longstanding three-fold, three-function concept of bivalve mantle edges. In contrast to ...

Among other things, the shell-opening behavior is an indicator of the mollusks' biological rhythms, daily growth, egg-laying cycles, daily agitation and other factors which are affected to varying ...

Mollusks are fabulous architects. They build houses that protect their soft bodies from predators and the elements—shells of uncommon strength, durability and beauty. Many of these shells have ...

Unionid shells are characterized by an outer aragonitic prismatic layer and an inner nacreous layer. The prisms of the outer shell layer are composed of single-crystal fibres radiating from ...

An international team of experts has resolved long-standing questions about the evolutionary history of mollusks, one of the ...

A tiny, hat-like shell that adorns a 478-million-year-old spiky slug is helping scientists figure out how mollusks evolved over the ages, according to a new study. The newly identified species solves ...