Shell Treasures

There are five main types of precious shells: slit shells (Pleurotomariidae), cowries (Cypraeidae), cone shells (Conidae), volutes (Volutidae), and rock shells (Muricidae).

Cone shells: These shells are cone shaped with a great variation of coloration and pattern. Carnivorous, cone shells emit poisons that kill their prey. Large cone shells are as lethal as poisonous snakes. Those stung by them will feel a burning sensation and numbness, and in extreme cases impairment of heart function can even lead to death. Taiwan's Conus textile, C. geographus, and C. marmoreus are all highly poisonous cone shells. Valuable cone shells include Conus teramachii, C. stupa and C. stupella.

Cowries: These were the shells that people used to use as currency. Cowries' soft mantles are on the outside. These protect the shells and give them their glossy porcelain-like outer shells. The relatively large and cheap tiger cowrie (Cypraea tigris) is often used as a carving material.

"Soft shells": When a mollusk living symbiotically with a sea anemone (a cnidarian invertebrate of the class Anthozoa) dies, its empty shell is often used as a house for hermit crabs. An anemone that is affixed to one of these shells benefits from the foraging of the hermit crab, which extends the anemone's range. Therefore the anemone secretes a substance to enlarge the shell so that the crab does not outgrow the shell and leave.

Trumpet conches: Fisher folk formerly used trumpet conches to make loud calls. In traditional fishing villages, people would blow on trumpet conches to call people to gather, such as when they would wade into the sea together and catch fish with large nets. Trumpet conches love to eat crown-of-thorns starfish, which in turn eat coral. The three help maintain the ecological balance of coral reefs.

Carrier shells (Xenophoridae), which live on the ocean floor at a depth of 200 meters, are masters of their environment. To camouflage themselves, carrier shells make use of what is nearby, decorating themselves with fragments of coral and other detritus. The Nanfang-ao Shell Exhibition has a carrier shell that is festooned with broken glass. It bears witness to the pollution of the deep seas.

Conus stupa

Pallid carrier shell (Xenophora pallidula)

Triton's trumpet (Charonia tritonis)

Langford's cowrie (Cypraea langford)

Soft shell