Seashells

2 Jul, 2026 590 Animals (Zoology)

Misha Glenny and guests discuss a familiar feature of our beaches: seashells, from their astonishing shapes and patterns that teach us about Earth’s oceans, to the ways that humans have treasured shells throughout history. Seashells appear in the mythologies of countless cultures across the world - think of Botticelli’s Venus emerging from a giant scallop shell, Vishnu’s sacred horn panchajanya, or the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl’s talisman cut from a conch shell. The urge to collect shells seems to be as old as our species. We’ve used them as decoration, currency, and musical instruments. But shells aren’t just beautiful objects washed up on our beaches. Many belong to one of the most diverse groups of the animal kingdom, Mollusca, and the remarkable morphology of forms and structures they grow in offer insight into the past, present, and future of the marine world.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

  • Suzanne Williams No other episodes
    Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum
  • Liz Harper No other episodes
    Professor of Evolutionary Malacology in the Department of Earth Sciences and Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge
  • Helen Scales No other episodes
    Marine biologist and Author.

Reading list

  • Shells
    S. Peter Dance (DK, 2022)
  • The marine gastropod Conomurex luhuanus (Strombidae) has high-resolution spatial vision and eyes with complex retinas
    A.R. Irwin, S.T. Williams, D.I. Speiser and N.W. Roberts (Journal of Experimental Biology 225:16, 2022)
  • Animal Eyes
    Michael F. Land and Dan-Eric Nilsson (Oxford University Press, 2012) Google Books →
  • Interesting Shells
    Andreia Salvador (The Natural History Museum, 2022) Google Books →
  • Shell Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Molluscan Lives
    Helen Scales (University of Chicago Press, 2026)
  • The Shell Spotter's Guide
    Helen Scales (National Trust Books, 2024) Google Books →
  • What a Shell Can Tell: Where They Live, What They Eat, How They Move, and More
    Helen Scales (Phaidon Press, 2022) Google Books →
  • Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells
    Helen Scales (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2015) Google Books →
  • Fossils: The Essential Guide
    Paul D. Taylor (University of Chicago Press, 2025)
  • Molluscan shell colour
    Suzanne Williams (Biological Reviews, 2017)

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Programme ID: m002ybkj

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002ybkj

Auto-category: 594 (Mollusca)