shells and statistics... one man's search for answers...

[Pete M]

so I brought back a whole mess of shells from florida. 8) today I had a chance to open up the boxes and start sterilizing and organizing them. As i was going along I noticed that all the examples of this one particular variety of mollusk were the one side. There were no corresponding mirroring halves. :hmm: Eventually I discovered I had one. One solitary other side. I find this quite perplexing and have not yet come across an answer. :dunno: I mean, the animal had them when it was alive. Is the missing half the bottom half? as in it was stuck in the mud when it died and the upper half was more likely to wash away? Is the tastier bits attached to one side or the other? Did the little mermaid steal them all?

 

 

[Geonovast]

Maybe it's the equivalent of being a southpaw?

[Pete M]

:D

nah, it's a left and a right half. you need one of each to make one animal.

[Geonovast]

lol, I know... but maybe that one oddball was a "lefty", and therefore was upside down compared to the others when it died.

[Pete M]

:rotf:

[jimoshel]

The two halves are held together by a muscle, tendon. After the animal dies scavengers eat all the flesh, or it just rots, and the two halves separate. Generally the other half is around but finding it is something else.

[mfpdm]

Two words,

 

Alien Abduction. :peek:

[jimoshel]

Why do we get blamed for everything?