Why Snails Have Shells

Why Snails Have Shells PDF

Author:

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 1993-01-01

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9780824815059

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Twenty traditional tales from such ethnic groups in China as Mongol, Tibetan, Yao, Han, and Miao.

A World in a Shell

A World in a Shell PDF

Author: Thom van Dooren

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 0262547341

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Following the trails of Hawai‘i’s snails to explore the simultaneously biological and cultural significance of extinction. In this time of extinctions, the humble snail rarely gets a mention. And yet snails are disappearing faster than any other species. In A World in a Shell, Thom van Dooren offers a collection of snail stories from Hawai‘i—once home to more than 750 species of land snails, almost two-thirds of which are now gone. Following snail trails through forests, laboratories, museums, and even a military training facility, and meeting with scientists and Native Hawaiians, van Dooren explores ongoing processes of ecological and cultural loss as they are woven through with possibilities for hope, care, mourning, and resilience. Van Dooren recounts the fascinating history of snail decline in the Hawaiian Islands: from deforestation for agriculture, timber, and more, through the nineteenth century shell collecting mania of missionary settlers, and on to the contemporary impacts of introduced predators. Along the way he asks how both snail loss and conservation efforts have been tangled up with larger processes of colonization, militarization, and globalization. These snail stories provide a potent window into ongoing global process of environmental and cultural change, including the largely unnoticed disappearance of countless snails, insects, and other less charismatic species. Ultimately, van Dooren seeks to cultivate a sense of wonder and appreciation for our damaged planet, revealing the world of possibilities and relationships that lies coiled within a snail’s shell.

Slugs and Snails (Collins New Naturalist Library, Book 133)

Slugs and Snails (Collins New Naturalist Library, Book 133) PDF

Author: Robert Cameron

Publisher: HarperCollins UK

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 0008203490

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Slugs and snails are part of the great Phylum Mollusca, a group that contains creatures as varied as the fast-moving squid or the sedentary clams, cockles and mussels. The largest group, however, are the gastropods, animals originally with a single foot and a single coiled shell.

Why Do Snails and Other Animals Have Shells?

Why Do Snails and Other Animals Have Shells? PDF

Author: Holly Beaumont

Publisher: Capstone

Published:

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 1543599605

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Find out all about shells and how they help snails to stay safe and survive. Discover how shells are different on different animals and the different jobs they do.

Snailology

Snailology PDF

Author: Michael Elsohn Ross

Publisher: Carolrhoda Books

Published: 2003-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781575054377

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Provides instructions for finding, collecting, and keeping snails and suggests how to delve into the secret lives of these shell dwellers.

Spirals in Time

Spirals in Time PDF

Author: Helen Scales

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-05-07

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1472911377

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The beautifully written story of shells and their makers, and our relationships with them. Seashells are the sculpted homes of a remarkable group of animals: the molluscs. These are some of the most ancient and successful animals on the planet. But watch out. Some molluscs can kill you if you eat them. Some will kill you if you stand too close. That hasn't stopped people using shells in many ways over thousands of years. They became the first jewelry and oldest currencies; they've been used as potent symbols of sex and death, prestige and war, not to mention a nutritious (and tasty) source of food. Spirals in Time is an exuberant aquatic romp, revealing amazing tales of these undersea marvels. Helen Scales leads us on a journey into their realm, as she goes in search of everything from snails that 'fly' underwater on tiny wings to octopuses accused of stealing shells and giant mussels with golden beards that were supposedly the source of Jason's golden fleece, and learns how shells have been exchanged for human lives, tapped for mind-bending drugs and inspired advances in medical technology. Weaving through these stories are the remarkable animals that build them, creatures with fascinating tales to tell, a myriad of spiralling shells following just a few simple rules of mathematics and evolution. Shells are also bellwethers of our impact on the natural world. Some species have been overfished, others poisoned by polluted seas; perhaps most worryingly of all, molluscs are expected to fall victim to ocean acidification, a side-effect of climate change that may soon cause shells to simply melt away. But rather than dwelling on what we risk losing, Spirals in Time urges you to ponder how seashells can reconnect us with nature, and heal the rift between ourselves and the living world.

Constructional Morphology and Evolution

Constructional Morphology and Evolution PDF

Author: Norbert Schmidt-Kittler

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 3642761569

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Constructional morphology explains features of organisms from a constructional and functional point of view. By means of physical analysis it explains the operational aspects of organic structures - how they can perform the activities organisms are expected to fulfil in order to survive in their environment. Constructional morphology also explains options and constraints during the evolution determined by internal constructional needs, ontogenetic demands, inherited organizational preconditions and environmental clues.

The Snail with the Right Heart

The Snail with the Right Heart PDF

Author: Maria Popova

Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books

Published: 2020-11-03

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9781592703494

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Based on a real scientific event and inspired by a beloved real human in the author's life, this is a story about science and the poetry of existence; about time and chance, genetics and gender, love and death, evolution and infinity -- concepts often too abstract for the human mind to fathom, often more accessible to the young imagination; concepts made fathomable in the concrete, finite life of one tiny, unusual creature dwelling in a pile of compost amid an English garden. Emerging from this singular life is a lyrical universal invitation not to mistake difference for defect and to welcome, across the accordion scales of time and space, diversity as the wellspring of the universe's beauty and resilience.

The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells

The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells PDF

Author: Hans Meinhardt

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-06-29

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 3662036177

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The pigment patterns on tropieal shells are of great beauty and diversity. They fas cinate by their mixture of regularity and irregularity. A partieular pattern seems to follow partieular mIes but these mIes allow variations. No two shells are identical. The motionless patterns appear to be static, and, indeed, they consist of calcified material. However, as will be shown in this book, the underlying mechanism that gene rates this beauty is eminently dynamic. It has much in common with other dynamie systems that generate patterns, such as a wind-sand system that forms large dunes, or rain and erosion that form complex ramified river systems. On other shells the underlying mechanism has much in common with waves such as those commonly observed in the spread of an epidemie. A mollusc can enlarge its shell only at the shell margin. In most cases, only at this margin are new elements of the pigmentation pattern added. Therefore, the shell pattern preserves arecord in time of a process that took place in a narrow zone at the growing edge. A certain point on the shell represents a certain moment in its history. Like a time machine one can go into the past or the future just by turning the shell back and forth. Having this complete historieal record opens the possibility of decoding the generic principles behind this beauty. My interest in these patterns began with a dinner in an Italian restaurant.