Mollusks are fabulous architects. They build houses that protect their soft bodies from predators and the elements—shells of uncommon strength, durability and beauty. Many of these shells have ...

Patterns On Tropical Marine Mollusk Shell Mirror Gene Expression Patterns Date: November 28, 2006 Source: BioMed Central Summary: Scientists have identified a group of genes that control the ...

Every mollusk’s body is surrounded by a mantle, a cloaklike organ that secretes calcium carbonate and mixes it with a scaffolding of protein to form a shell one layer at a time.

These fascinating and colourful mollusc shells from a collection at the Natural History Museum ... as Salvador writes, are secreted by the mantle, a layer of tissue covering the soft parts of ...

The part of the mollusc’s body that is in charge of building the shell is called the “mantle”. The mantle builds a kind of frame first, using proteins to make it very strong. It then fills ...

Scientists have identified a group of genes that control the formation of shapes and color patterns on the shell of the tropical marine mollusk referred to as "abalone." A study published today in ...

All mollusks build their own shells, whether they live in water or on land. Creatures like snails, clams, oysters and mussels use an organ called a mantle to secrete layers of calcium carbonate ...

As it secretes the shell, each mollusk mantle uses a mixture of ancient evolved genes (long before the major mollusk evolutionary radiation 500 million years ago) and more recently evolved genes.

The mantle secretes calcium carbonate in layers, which harden into the shell. The researchers wanted to design a model that captured the interactions between the mollusk’s soft body and the ...

Make mine a mollusc Published: October 2, 2012 12:14am EDT. Russell Garwood, ... These plates sat on the soft parts of the animal – a thick, leathery mantle, ...