But how much mess can a mollusc make - and are they really deadly to humans?
Answering Yochelson [ 117], the mollusc made a shell, but then the shell made the molluscs.
In contrast, say Gilbert and colleagues, molluscs have been making shells from a substance called nacre since the Ordovician period 450 million years ago, and this hard mineral is abundant in fossils – in ammonites, for example.
The nacre is made of chemicals secreted by the same kind of cells responsible for making the mollusc's shell.
Their large differences in anatomy and life cycle, their wide global distribution, bioaccumulation of chemicals by filtration and relatively straightforward capacity to be cultured and handled in the laboratory make molluscs an ideal species for studying biological processes.
The fact that some molluscs have adapted to low-pH freshwater environments over millions of years is not evidence that molluscs currently living in the ocean will be able to tolerate acidification occurring over a few decades.
These multicoloured, mollusc-shaped hooks make for fun wall features.
Other luxury and high-status products were made from molluscs.
Similarly, molluscs appear to have made invasions of the deep sea from multiple shallow-water regions, although no families or higher groups of mollusc appear to have originated in the deep sea (Clarke, 1962; Allen, 1978).
Even if snails are found in the gutters and puddles of asphalted surfaces, they do not resist the desiccation that takes place in these environments, because the asphalt makes the molluscs' process of 'aestivation' impossible, and consequently impedes their survival during periods of drought.
