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COILING FIXED. "Usually, the direction of coiling is the same for all members of a given species. Occasionally, though, mutants are found." https://lnkd.in/dctHRnB View in LinkedIn

HANDEDNESS. "Most shells are right handed and possess overlapping whorls that coil around a single axis. Spiral coiling also appears to be dictated by a set of ‘behavioural’ rules involving shell sculpture ... Opisthostoma shells are 'sinistroid’ due to a reversal in coiling direction in the last half-whorl ... can possess two or three different coiling axes." https://lnkd.in/dNeQF-g View in LinkedIn

"THE SOLUBLE COMPONENT of the shell matrix acts to inhibit crystallization when in its soluble form, but when it attaches to an insoluble substrate, it permits the nucleation of crystals. By switching from a dissolved to an attached form and back again, the proteins can produce 'bursts' of growth, producing the brick-wall structure of the shell." https://lnkd.in/dtpKQHE View in LinkedIn

THE INSOLUBLE PROTEINS. "Hundreds of soluble and insoluble proteins, control shell formation. Insoluble proteins tend to be thought of as playing a more important/major role in crystallization control ... The nacreous layer has an organic framework of the protein MSI60, which has a structure a little like spider silk and forms sheets." https://lnkd.in/dtpKQHE View in LinkedIn

"THE ORGANIC MATRIX forms the scaffold that directs crystallization, and the deposition and rate of crystals is also controlled by hormones produced by the mollusc. The formation of the shell involves a number of genes and transcription factors." https://lnkd.in/dtpKQHE View in LinkedIn

"THE ORGANIC CONSTITUENT is mainly made up of polysaccharides and glycoproteins. This organic framework controls the formation of calcium carbonate crystals. It even controls the polymorph of the crystal deposited, controlling positioning and elongation of crystals and preventing their growth where appropriate." https://lnkd.in/dtpKQHE View in LinkedIn

"THE SHELL PATTERN is, so to say, a space-time plot. The shells provide a unique situation in that the complete history of a highly dynamic process is preserved. This provides the opportunity to decode this process." http://www.eb.tuebingen.mpg.de/research/emeriti/hans-meinhardt/shells.html View in LinkedIn

GROWING EDGE OF THE SHELL is where "pigment becomes incorporated during growth at the edge. In these case, the pattern formation proceeds in a strictly linear manner. The second dimension is a protocol of what happens as function of time along the growing edge." http://www.eb.tuebingen.mpg.de/research/emeriti/hans-meinhardt/shells.html View in LinkedIn

EPISODIC CONSTRUCTION. "The shell is constructed by periodic—usually daily—bouts of secretion. Sensory organs in the mantle detect the presence of pigment and stimulate pigment secretion in local secretory cells." https://lnkd.in/dqhz3rW View in LinkedIn

SPACE-TIME IDIOGRAMS. "There is no evolutionary record of nervous systems, but what you’re seeing on the surface of seashells is a space-time record, like the recording of brain-wave activity in an electroencephalogram." http://www.news.pitt.edu/CONUSSHELLS View in LinkedIn