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Acknowledgements

T
urning my attention from a single, obscure genus with 40 or so species to an entire, globe-spanning phylum containing hundreds of thousands of motley creatures was, perhaps, a bold move. Writing about seashells and molluscs has been an altogether different experience compared to exploring the world of seahorses and luckily a lot of wonderful people have been there to help me navigate these broad, rambling reaches of the animal kingdom.

I am deeply grateful to all the researchers who have shared with me their molluscan enthusiasms and ideas, answered my questions and helped me make fewer mistakes than I would have on my own (any slip-ups that are still in the book are entirely down to me). Thank you to Philippe Bouchet, Martin Smith, Reuben Clements, Thor-Seng Liew, Bard Ermentrout, George Oster, Masaki Hoso, Bisserka Gaydarska, Dan Harries, Philine zu Ermgassen, Piero Addis, Vicky Peck, Nina Bednaršek, Gareth Lawson, Julian Finn, Ken McNamara and Baldomero Olivera.

It was a great honour to be granted a Roger Deakin award for this book from the Authors’ Foundation at the Society of Authors. This gave me a link to one of my favourite and much-missed nature writers and allowed me to carry out a series of research trips. My hunt for sea-silk in Sardinia would not have been possible, or nearly as much fun, if it weren’t for Alessandro Spiga and Silvia Messori, who so warmly welcomed me into their home, took me snorkelling to see Noble Pen Shells and introduced me to Chiara Vigo. Thank you also to Annelise Hagan and Eleonora Manca for putting me in touch with the people of Sant’Antioco, to Rebecca Lewis for coming along on our adventure and translating for me, and to Chiara for showing me her work. My sea-silk story would have been impossible without the kindness and knowledge of Felicitas Maeder, especially for introducing me to the people at Archeotur in Sant’Antioco. My thanks in particular go to Ignazio Marrocu, Giustino Argiolas and Patrizia Zara, and of course to Giuseppina and Assuntina Pes for inviting me into their home and demonstrating their sea-silk skills.

I am hugely grateful to Ulf Riebesell for inviting me to join him in Gran Canaria, and to the rest of the BIOACID team who kindly took me out to Gando Bay to see the KOSMOS mesocosms and let me
snoop around their labs. A very special thanks goes to Silke Lischka for so graciously helping me find sea butterflies and sharing her immense enthusiasm for these tiny creatures when she really should have been sleeping and recovering from the gruelling research schedule.

In the UK, a big thank you to fellow Triton fan Andy Woolmer for showing me around the Mumbles, and for all his insights into oysters, whelks, cockles, mussels and the rest (and for persuading me to try winkles for the first time). Thank you to Jon Ablett for showing me behind the scenes at London’s Natural History Museum, and to Peter Dance for our discussions, beginning several years ago, about Hugh Cuming, for sharing his Cuming archive with me, and for treating me to the best Thai clams I’ve ever tasted. A warm thank you to Fatou Janha and all the women of the TRY Oyster Women’s Association in The Gambia. If you visit The Gambia, make sure you try the oysters.

This book wouldn’t have happened without Jim Martin at Bloomsbury, who has been the ideal combination of editor and molluscan co-conspirator. Many thanks to him for indulging and sharing my shelly whims, and for being so utterly selfless in the face of many edible molluscs. Our journey to the book’s cover and illustrations began when I spotted a beautiful drawing of an argonaut on Aaron John Gregory’s website. When I discovered that Aaron is not only a talented artist but also as much of a marine geek as me, I instantly knew that he was our man. A huge thank you to Aaron for his immense patience and hard work, and for so brilliantly bringing the molluscs to life.

Lastly I want to thank all my dear friends and family who have cheered me on through my seashell adventures, who have read my words, sat through all the shell stories, and in many ways kept me going. My love and gratitude go to you all, and in particular to Anna Petherick, Riamsara Kuyakanon Knapp, Eric Drury, Matthew Wilkinson (whose book on animal locomotion was being written at the same time as this one), Ria and Jake Snaddon (plus baby Snaddon who will arrive in the world shortly before this book does, and who I look forward to showing seashells in the years ahead), Peter Wothers, Umut Dursun, Conor Jamieson, Liam Drew, Joshua Drew, Drew Bednarski and Meghan Strong, Kate Lash (my official geochemistry consultant), and finally my parents, Di and Tom Hendry, my mum especially for coming up with the book’s inspired subtitle, and my dad for reading so much of the manuscript when he should have been working on his Ph.D. And Ivan, my constant companion in life and words, who calls me up on my smutty jokes, finds ways to help me tell my stories, and always makes things better.

Index

abalone
111

Ablett, John
152
,
226
,
227
,
228
,
230

aculifera
32
,
35
,
36

algal blooms
106
–
9

Alien
80

Allonautilus
177

Alviniconcha strummeri
24

Alzheimer’s disease
241

ammonites
137
,
179
,
182
–
6

absence today
189
–
92
,
193

ammonoids
186
–
9

fertilisers
184
–
5

A Natural History of Shells
60
,
66

animal feeds
78

anti-fouling agents
245

Archimedean spirals
50

Argonaut, Brown
174

Greater
174

Rough-keeled
174

Tuberculated
174

Argonauta argo
178

argonauts
21
,
173
–
6
,
193
–
4
,
264
–
5

fossil record
178
–
82
,
192
–
3

rafting
199
–
200

reproduction
200
–
1

use of air in shells
201
–
2

Villepreux, Jeanne
194
–
9

Aristotle
26
,
148
–
9
,
175

arthropods
23
,
26

atherosclerosis
244

augers
38

Awakenings
243

bailer shells
78

Banks, Joseph
193
,
209

barnacles
26
,
142
,
224
–
5
,
285

Barthelat, François
248

Barton, Nick
82

Bat, Bumblebee
48

Bee-eater, European
142

belemnites
183

Bennett, George
221

bio-glues
243
–
5

bivalves
27
,
33
,
34
,
43
,
62

feeding
38
–
9

siphons
42

Blaber, Stephen
245

Bladderwrack
16

Blaschka, Leopold and Rudolf
232

Boettiger, Alistair
74

Bonamia
126
,
127

Bonderer, Lorenz
249

boring molluscs
38

Botticelli
Birth of Venus
80

Bouchet, Philippe
22
–
3
,
283
–
4

Bouzouggar, Abdeljalil
82

brachiopods
26
,
31
,
58
,
180

brains
34
,
72
–
3
,
104
–
5

human brains
76

Briggs, Derek
30

British Museum
152
,
177
,
207
,
223
,
225
,
226

Broderip, William
178
,
216
,
219
,
225

bryozoans
26
,
142
,
285

bubble snails
168
–
9

building a shell
47
–
50

dextral and sinistral shells
63
–
7

patterns
67
–
72

patterns as memory
72
–
6

Raup’s model
54
–
9
,
62
,
63

spiral growth
50
–
4

why shape matters
59
–
63

Burgess Shale, Canada
29
–
33
,
180

Butterfield, Nick
31

Byron, Lord George
193

byssus
147
–
50
,
158
–
60
,
243

growth
165
–
6

harvesting
164
–
5

weaving
161
–
4

calcium carbonate
41
,
43
,
48
,
51
,
248
–
9
,
250

limestone formations
48

ocean acidification
264
–
8

Caldeira, Ken
262

Cameroceras
181

Campbell, John
71
–
2

capiz shells
249

Caron, Jean-Bernard
31
–
2

caudofoveates
28
,
32
,
35

Caulerpa
169

cephalopods
34
,
35
,
41
,
76

fossil record
178
–
82

mantles
42

right- and left-coiling shells
66

chank shells
64

Chapman, John
87
,
88

Chiton, Gumboot
28

chitons
21
,
28
,
32
,
34
,
35
,
40

chordates
26
,
180

CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)
289

Clam, Atlantic Jackknife
246

Oxheart
14

clams
17
,
18
,
21
,
26
,
27
,
41

Clark, Craig
237
–
8

Clash
24

Clathurella cincta
252

Clements, Reuben
48
–
9
,
59

climate change
14
,
84
,
108
,
256

anthropogenic climate change
261
–
2
,
272
,
278
–
81

coccolithophores
19
,
277
–
8

Cockle, Heart
45

West African Bloody
100
,
116

cockles
17
,
18
,
26
,
40
–
1
,
44
,
286

coiling pottery
51

Colberg, Mrs
59
,
61

coleoids
181
–
2
,
183

Colobus, Red
114

Comeau, Steeve
270
,
277

Conchologia Iconica
229
–
30
,
232