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Primary spirals may appear in regular succession on either side of the first primary, which generally becomes the shoulder angle if angulation occurs. Secondary spirals may appear by intercalation between the primary ones, and generally are absent in the young shell, except in some highly accelerated types.
This shell has nine whorls. A whorl is a single, complete 360° revolution or turn in the spiral or whorled growth of a mollusc shell. A spiral configuration of the shell is found in numerous gastropods, but it is also found in shelled cephalopods including Nautilus, Spirula and the large extinct subclass of cephalopods known as the ammonites.
Botanical whorls: sepals, petals, leaves, or branches radiating from a single point (photo of flower of Friesodielsia desmoides, family Annonaceae, juxtaposed with diagram of axial cross-section) Mollusc whorls : Each complete 360° turn in the spiral growth of the shell of the mollusc Anisus septemgyratus , family Planorbidae .
An Archimedean spiral is, for example, generated while coiling a carpet. [5] A hyperbolic spiral appears as image of a helix with a special central projection (see diagram). A hyperbolic spiral is some times called reciproke spiral, because it is the image of an Archimedean spiral with a circle-inversion (see below). [6]
For shells in which the rate of whorl expansion of each revolution around the axis is very high, the aperture and the body whorl are large, and the shell tends to be low spired. The shell of the abalone is a good example of this kind of shell. The opposite tendency can sometimes create a high spire with very little whorl increase per revolution.
The empty apex in these shells is sometimes very thin, and becomes brittle. In some species it breaks away, leaving the shell truncated or decollated. Decollated shells usually have the whorls of the spire closely wound and not increasing much in diameter. [2] A typical example is the decollate snail (Rumina decollata).
Three views of a shell of Norelona pyrenaica with the apertural view in the center A shell of Semicassis pyrum, which has a large aperture and a pronounced parietal callus The aperture is an opening in certain kinds of mollusc shells : it is the main opening of the shell, where the head-foot part of the body of the animal emerges for locomotion ...
Evolute shells have very little overlap, a large umbilicus, and many exposed whorls. Involute shells have strong overlap, a small umbilicus, and only the largest and most recent whorls are exposed. Shell structure can be broken down further by the width of the shell, with implications for hydrodynamic efficiency. Major shell forms include: