For those, like us, love to immerse themselves in the 7 seas of the world can certainly confirm that each shell seen alive in its natural environment, in a particular type of bottom, perhaps hidden in a small crevice during the day and strolled on the sand in search of food during the night, always results in a great excitement and great joy!

Shells, since prehistoric times, were used by people, including those who lived far from the sea, for many purposes such as to create objects of common use such as combs and bowls, to embellish garments, and headdresses, statues and masks of war, to make necklaces and jewelry used especially during important ceremonies.

Our Stone Age ancestors were able to extract from the shells good hoe blades, scrapers, arrowheads and knives, the ancient Polynesians, while exploring the Pacific Ocean, transformed into a pearl oyster true love fishing and therefore one of the main tools for survival of entire populations, tribal leaders were using Malaysian hang around his neck, like a brilliant solo, a beautiful Cypraea aurantium, the traditional symbol of authority already in the Neolithic, the Triton shell with severed the tip, was used as a musical instrument, a tradition that continued into classical antiquity.

Other types of shells, however, have really made history, such as Muriel, exactly the Murex trunculus and Murex brandaris, from which was extracted the famous purple indelible dye very valuable, from the Phoenicians used mainly for coloring fabrics flax and wool, leather, pottery and frescoes.

The name of the Phoenicians in fact derives etymologically from the greek Phoinix, which literally means "Red" from the color purple that they had discovered and learned to use.

The Cypraea moneta and the Cypraea annulus, known as "cowries" were even used for hundreds of years first as barter, then as money itself. Only toward the end of the colonial powers have put "off course" shells used as currency, even if still throughout the twentieth century have continued to be widely used as small change in the markets of the villages. After these brief anecdotes about the history of the shell in the world, we pass to its composition and some knowledge of biology major.

The shell (except for that of Cephalopods) is a shell consists of several layers, chemically composed of calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate and an organic substance that conchiolin, which protects and supports the body of mollusks. This multi-layer construction is produced directly from the animal that lives and is generated by a secretion of the mantle, the outer layer, usually very colorful and with particular forms, is called periostracum, ostracism, however, is the central part, the ipostraco Finally, the inner part is that, in most cases, is composed of nacre.

The shellfish are part of invertebrates, animals that lack of backbone, and are the second phylum, in order of size of the animal kingdom with more than 110,000 known species, mostly marine.

The Phylum Mollusca is divided into different classes, namely in: Monoplacofori, Polyplacophora, gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods Scafopodi.

I Monoplacofori, are the most primitive of mollusks are considered the evolutionary step between worms and molluscs, the Polyplacophora (chitons) use as a sort of protective armor plate articulated on mobile gastropods are the most numerous class (employing about 100.000 species) may also be devoid of shell, as in the case of colorful Nudibranchs and vary by size of the order of millimeters up to several tens of centimeters, the bivalves are composed of two parts called valves, which are almost always half-closed, some live attached the substrate, others disconnected and still others live completely buried, the Scafopodi are characterized by their typical shell shape of a small elephant tusk; cephalopods finally have a highly developed nervous system, may not have a shell, as the octopus, or to have one inside as the cuttlefish bone or feather squid.

We have created this new section of the web-site dedicated entirely to shells, called SCUBACONCHIGLIANDO to share with you the beauty of these wonderful little animals still seen by many and can then show with images taken from us this amazing fish populations, of course, also be explained by brief descriptions, the families of bivalve shell-bearers whom we met in the seas of the world during our travels, hoping to raise even more respect for them.