Since the early 2000s, Fabio La Rosa has operated the engineering, construction, and project management firm Noval. In his free time, Noval’s Fabio La Rosa is an amateur conchologist and enthusiastically studies the shells of sea creatures such as mollusks.
Many regard the shells that wash up on the beach as simple curiosities, but the remnants of mollusks hold many facts. Unlike other animals with shells or exoskeletons, mollusks use a single shell their whole lives, expanding it outward from the smallest tip of the juvenile shell.
The shape of a mollusk's shell is heavily informed by the type and intensity of its predators. In tropical climates, where predators are strong and numerous, mollusks have spiky, ridged shells for better protection.
Typically, a mollusk's shell opens to the right, which makes left-opening shells highly prized by collectors. These shells are likely to remain rare, however, since it is nearly impossible for left-opening mollusks to mate with their right-opening counterparts.
Many regard the shells that wash up on the beach as simple curiosities, but the remnants of mollusks hold many facts. Unlike other animals with shells or exoskeletons, mollusks use a single shell their whole lives, expanding it outward from the smallest tip of the juvenile shell.
The shape of a mollusk's shell is heavily informed by the type and intensity of its predators. In tropical climates, where predators are strong and numerous, mollusks have spiky, ridged shells for better protection.
Typically, a mollusk's shell opens to the right, which makes left-opening shells highly prized by collectors. These shells are likely to remain rare, however, since it is nearly impossible for left-opening mollusks to mate with their right-opening counterparts.
