Go to the seaside and escape between the tides. Get sandy toes, listen to the waves - and always, always look for seashells.
A day at the beach isn’t complete without a sandcastle decorated with these marine treasures, or a few in the pocket to bring home. Adorning bathroom shelves and windowsills, seashells are not only fond reminders of a visit to the sea, but they have many secrets to share and stories to tell about the animals that made them and the wonders of their watery world. Any shell, after all, was once part of a living, breathing sea creature. Learn to decipher these hidden messages and you’ll start to see seashells in a whole new light.
Every time you pick up an empty seashell, you’re holding a mollusc’s abandoned exoskeleton, which these soft-bodied animals use as a multi-purpose tool. This is their home, their place to hide, and the attachment point for muscles to help them move. There’s a plethora of shells to find, made by different kinds of molluscs, in habitats all around the UK coasts.
Rocky shores and tide pools are home to lots of sea snails (gastropods) with elegant spiraling shells, including dog whelks and periwinkles. When it’s alive, a sea snail pokes its tentacled head out of its shell’s open hole and crawls along on a muscly foot.
At low tide, limpet-like chitons with ‘coat-of-mail’ shells, creep about under rocks, their shells in eight plates across their backs. Sandy beaches are the domain of cockles, razor clams, and other types of bivalves, each bearing a pair of crinkled and fan-shaped shells that clamp tightly together to keep their soft bodies tucked up inside.
この記事は BBC Wildlife の July 2022 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は BBC Wildlife の July 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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Jump Around - Bagheera Kiplingi - The acrobatic spider with a predilection for veggie food
Spiders eat flies, right? everyone knows that the 45,000 or so spiders in the world are all obligate carnivores, more or less – eating other animals, mainly invertebrates. Nature, however, loves an exception, and one particular spider missed out on that ecological memo. It goes by the wonderful scientific name of Bagheera kiplingi, and its claim to fame is that its diet is – at least mostly – vegetarian.
Female of the Species - Zebras - A strong sisterhood is key to staying safe
Zebras are masters of confusion. Their collective noun is ‘a dazzle’, which is fitting since their bodies and behaviour have been surprising scientists for centuries.
See It, Save It? - Wildlife tourism can be a powerful ally in protecting nature - but it can also harm it. We weigh up the pros and cons.
The sums of wildlife travel aren’t as simple as more tourists equals happier nature. How much did my visit really contribute to the conservation of Lady Liuwa and her habitat – and was that outweighed by carbon emissions from my flights? Did my presence disturb the animals’ natural behaviour more than it reduced the threat of poaching or benefited local communities?The question of whether wildlife travel is, on balance, good for wildlife is a complex one – and there’s no simple answer.
Can Your Really Offset Emissions? - Planning an overseas wildlife-watching trip entails facing some inconvenient truths
Imagine (or maybe you don't need to) that you hanker after the safari trip of a lifetime in sub-Saharan Africa. A 17-day tour beginning at the iconic Victoria Falls, passing through Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania, taking in some of the continent’s most wildlife-rich national parks, and ending on the lush island of Zanzibar.
Metamorphosis: a life-changing event
WITH EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST JV CHAMARY
New series for BBC One: Asia
Settle in this autumn for a new natural-history extravaganza on BBC One and iPlayer: the longawaited Asia, presented by Sir David Attenborough.
Loss of Antarctic sea ice could impact seabird food supply
Albatrosses and petrels may be forced to fly further to feed
Tarsiers in trouble
Urgent action is needed to ensure survival of the Yoda-like primate
SNAP-CHAT
Chien Lee on shrew loos, rogue drones and being rained out of bed
VISIONS OF NATURE
The winners of the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition 2024, from David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
