Seashells: the plainness and beauty of their mathematical description

Examples: Cephalopoda

Spirula (helmet shape, [2, p. 249])

[alpha=76, beta=90, phi=1, mu=1, Omega=1, A=2.1, a=0.5, b=0.5, L=0]

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

Like nautiloids and ammonites, the small, translucent, milky white shell of the spirula coils in a flat spiral and has many chambers (that help controlling the buoyancy). In life, the shell is contained within the body of a squidlike animal.
Habitat: free swimming, occur worldwide in warm seas.

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

Last update: 08 Apr 23:40:25 2006

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