> moon snail A large moon snail pushes its way through the speckled sand just below the low tideline. The snail has a round shell that is some four inches (10 centimeters) wide. Bulging out all...
The life of a chiton
Imagine you're the kind of mollusk called a chiton tuhn). You have a sort of head, a mouth, but no eyes. Your body is a soft, oblong lump, with no arms or legs. Your head and back are covered with...
The “spade-footed” ones
If you ever find the shell of a scaphopod uh pahd) on a beach, you may think you've found the tusk of a tiny elephant! For that's what the shells of most of these little creatures look like. The...
The beautiful shell
Millions of years ago, the sea was full of many octopuslike animals. But these animals had shells, like those of snails. Today, of course, the octopus has no shell at all. And its cousin, the squid,...
Sea arrows
The squid, or sea arrow as it is sometimes called, is a cousin of the octopus. Like the octopus it can change color and can shoot out a cloud of ink. It also swims as an octopus does, by sucking in...
A many-armed “monster”
The sun was setting over the ocean, and the sky was a blaze of pink, orange, and purple. As the big red ball slowly dropped out of sight, the bright colors faded and the sky turned blue-black. Night...
Mollusks
Octopuses, snails, slugs, oysters, clams, scallops, squids, and a number of similar creatures all belong to a "family" of animals called mollusks uhsks). The name means "soft body." A mollusk has...
The life of a barnacle
A barnacle spends most of its life standing on its head and waving its legs! When a baby barnacle hatches out of its egg it has one eye and twelve legs. For several weeks it swims about in the...
Some surprising shrimp
The bandit lay waiting. He wasn't very big, but he had a pistol cocked and ready! Suddenly, a fish appeared, swimming slowly past the bandit's hiding place. The bandit's pistol went off with a loud...
All kinds of crabs
Someone who is grouchy is often called a \"crab." That doesn't seem fair to the real crabs. There's no reason to think that any of them are grouchy! In fact, they're a big family with many odd and...
