[Jewelry making - Article 00059] - Re: [Orchid] Shell toxicity - Dentalium shells

[linlahlum]

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    Dentalium shells - what they are 

    =93Tooth shells, occasionally called tusk shells, members of the class
    Scaphopoda, represent a sideline in molluscan evolution. There are
    about 350 living species, all of which are found in ocean waters.
    The shell, which looks like a miniature elephant=92s tusk, is open at
    both ends. The narrow end often protrudes above the mud or sand in
    which the animal lives. =85a combination of ciliary action and
    muscular contractions of the foot circulates water and expels waste
    materials from the narrow end of the shell. Both head and foot can
    be extended from the broad end of the shell. The foot  . . .is used
    to raise or lower the animal in the substrate to a point where food
    is available=85..Long tentacles with expanded clublike disks on their
    ends=85.pull organic debris or small protozoans (which are eventually
    passed inside the shell to the mouth).=94 

    (There=92s a lot more, if you reeeeaally want to know. . .) 

    =93In Northwestern North America  a common species, Dentalium
    indianorum, was used as money by several Indian tribes.=94 

    From =93The Shell Makers=94, by Dr. Alan Solem, Curator of
    Invertebrates, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. 

    Someone mentioned tentacles: you=92re right. Although possessing
    tentacles, Scaphopoda are not the same class as Cephalopods, which
    are squids, cuttlefish, nautilids, and octopuses (yes, octopuses,
    not octopi). 

    The color in Dentalium shells (which someone asked about) has the
    same source as the color in most other shells: the food the animal
    eats (like pink flamingos and shrimp). Waste products are excreted
    both directly, and into the shell. Color fades after death, as with
    all shells, usually by sun bleaching. A colorful shell usually means
    it was harvested alive, not washed up on the beach. 

    O.K., I=92m going back to the studio now. 

Lin Lahlum


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