Seashells: the plainness and beauty of their mathematical description

Examples: Gastropods

Glory of the Sea (cone shell, egg shape, [2, p. 187])

[alpha=87, beta=7, phi=78, mu=0, Omega=0, A=7, a=4.3, b=1, L=0]

(Click with the mouse over the picture to rotate it)

The cone shells (family Conidae) are very popular shells among collectors because of their great variety of colours and patterns. Conical in shape. The animals of every single cone are carnivorous, feeding on other mollusks, worms and small fish that they capture by injecting venom through their teeth. The glory of the sea cone is a glossy, heavy fairly tall-spired shell with a body whorl morethan twice the spire's height.
Habitat: deep water, West Pacific.

[2] S. Peter Dance, Shells, Dorling Kindersley, 2002.

Last update: 08 Apr 23:40:25 2006

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