Where do seashells come from?

Question

How do they come in different shapes and sizes?

Answer 1

The last answer was actually very true. But as for how they are made in the first place, the calciun is given off as a waste product from the organism. As the organism grows larger, the extra calcium waste will build up around the older shell and getting bigger because of the size of the animal. Thus creating the circlar ridges.

Answer 2

Sea sheels are mostly made from a mineral called "calcium". This is the same stuff your bones are made of. The shell kind of act as the "skeleton" for soft-bodied creatures that live in the sea (like oysters, clams, and snails). When the skeleton is on the outside, it is called an "exo-skeleton". Humans have their bones on the inside, so we call them "endo-skeletons".

In the sea, when one of these animals dies, the skeleton (or shell) is left over. Sometimes other creature that didn't MAKE the shell, use them to make nests, or crawl inside and use them as protection (like the "hermit crab").

They come in different shapes and sizes so that each creature can adapt to it different environment (like deeper water, colder or warmer water, different camoflage [colors], and different sizes). Just like each human is a little different size and shape, so are the animals in the sea that make (or use) shells.

Answer 3

Seashells are the external skeletons of various sea creatures.

They are different shapes and sizes because the animals that have them are differet sizes and have evolved to fill various niches in the environment that the various shapes have proven to be best suited for.

Answer 4

They are the exo-skeletons of sea creatures like clams and mollusks. They come in different shapes and sizes because they are from animals of different ages and species.

Answer 5

They come from crustacians. These animals grow shells to live in for protection. When they grow they shed the smaller shell and regrow or find a bigger one that is not being used to call home.

Answer 6

Different mollusks and aquatic creatures (invertebrates or shellfish) use them as a natual defense to protect their soft flesh. Cephalapods, snails, and slugs have them, for example.

Answer 7

The sand beneathe the waves create them over millions of years, like coal to a diamond

Answer 8

they're the outer shells of sea creatures that have died, mussel shells come from mussels, clam shells from clams, conch shells from sea snails, etc. Something slimy used to live inside it and that was it's protection instead of bones

Answer 9

they come from the sea and they are different shapes and sizes because of erosion. same as when you dig up fossils.

Answer 10

The sea