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BookmarkA shell is a hard, rigid outer layer, which has evolved in a very wide variety of different animals, including mollusks, sea urchins, crustaceans, turtles and tortoises, armadillos, etc.
Scientific names for this type of structure include exoskeleton, test, carapace, and peltidium. The shells that are perhaps most familiar and most commonly encountered, both in the wild and for sale as decorative objects, are seashells, more precisely, the external shells of marine mollusks.
These are usually primarily composed of calcium carbonate, in the form of calcite or aragonite crystallised out in an organic matrix.
Calcium carbonate in mollusc shells can take different crystalline forms, one being nacre otherwise known as mother of pearl. Other kinds of animal shells are made from chitin, bone and cartilage, or silica..
For more information about the topic Animal shell, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Gastropod shell — The gastropod shell is an animal shell which is part of the body of a gastropod or snail. It is an external skeleton or exoskeleton, which serves not ... > read more
Mollusca — The molluscs or mollusks are the large and diverse phylum Mollusca, which includes a variety of familiar creatures well-known for their decorative ... > read more
