Snails have shells the moment they're born, but it's kind of hard to tell. In fact, it's hard to even see a baby snail. Some are nearly microscopic, such as Angustopila psammion, whose adult-sized ...

Mollusks, from land snails and slugs to oysters and mussels in the sea, have a few things in common. They have a head. They have a soft middle part that holds their organs. Then, some have a muscle ...

Paleobiologist Geerat Vermeij is enthralled with mollusks. Their shells line the surfaces and fill the cabinets and drawers in his office on the second floor of the Earth and Planetary Sciences ...

Mollusks add daily to the margins of their shells, producing intricate patterns prized by beachcombers. Though this seems complex, the process can actually be explained by a simple network of nerve ...

Stay on top of what’s happening in the Bay Area with essential Bay Area news stories, sent to your inbox every weekday. The Bay Bay Area-raised host Ericka Cruz Guevarra brings you context and ...

An itsy-bitsy mollusk in Borneo is the new record holder for the world's smallest known snail, a new study finds. Its shiny, translucent, white shell has an average height of 0.027 inches (0.7 ...

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 ...

Keeping my sailboat in the Sea of Cortez gives me excellent opportunities to see the great whales of the world, common in these nutrient-rich waters. During this visit, though, I thought small. I went ...

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 ...

Scientists have discovered a new species of chiton, an ancient marine mollusk that has remained virtually unchanged for the ...

Scientists devised a mathematic model that helps explains how Nipponites, some of the wonkiest ammonites, built their shells. By Sabrina Imbler If you’ve seen one ammonite, you may think you’ve seen ...

The marketing pitch for Florida’s Sanibel and Captiva islands is “250 Kinds of Shells, 250 Miles of Bike Paths, 15 Miles of Beaches.” With shells getting the top billing over the islands’ many scenic ...