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4 stories tagged Shells
Giant clams glow electric blue because they farm their own sunlight — millions of algae living inside their mantles. Two new studies, one from August 2026, reveal how much each species runs on solar power, and why that helps us protect the reef's gentle giants.
A new Smithsonian display makes one deep-time lesson instantly vivid: some ammonite shells still flash rainbow color 69 to 72 million years after they formed. Here’s why those fossils glow, what they reveal about North America’s inland sea, and why shell lovers should care.
Pick up a shell on today’s shoreline and you are holding the long afterglow of one of Earth’s biggest turning points. A new Stanford-led study shows how the Great Dying 252 million years ago helped decide which shells would become the familiar stars of modern beaches.
A nautilus shell is a mathematical equation made physical. Hermit crabs, oysters, and snails engineer protective architecture using calcium carbonate, logarithmic spirals, and iridescent nacre — one layer at a time, over millions of years.
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