Shells – Feel

ambience: Scallop shells clanging together

That’s the sound that a couple of scallop shells make when they’re clapped together. Most of us examine seashells by looking at them, but there’s a lot to be learned about a shell just by holding it in your hand. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

“I pick up a shell, and the first thing I do, is with my hands, I will take a general, quick examination of the shape. And then as soon as you did that, and sort of figure out what it probably is, in general, then you start looking at the details.”

For Geerat Vermeij, “looking” means touching and listening, because Vermeij, one of the world’s leading authorities on seashells, is blind.

“The details of the outside sculpture — I have here this cohog clam, and around the inner-edge of the shell there’s a nice series of riblets which you can feel with your thumb-nail (he scratches shell), and you can look at the hinge teeth, the muscle scars, and all sorts of other details, and I do that with my fingertips and with the nails on my, on my fingers.”

According to Vermeij, it was only by touch that a certain Venezuelan fossil shell was recognized as a new species.

“And it turns out the one of the characters is in fact the number of little cranulations at the edge of its lip, and that differs significantly from the number in a closely-related species. So you never know, and so you often end up counting these little features. Now the other reason for either counting or at least noticing some of these features is that they can be functional. When the clam is shut, the valves don’t move easily with respect to one another. They close extremely well, and part of the reason for that is that these ridges hold them together (scratches ridge again in background). So by noticing these ridges, you you notice a functionally useful attribute of the shell.”

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Shells - Feel

A world expert on seashells who is blind says you can learn a lot about shells just by touching them.
Air Date:07/05/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

ambience: Scallop shells clanging together

That's the sound that a couple of scallop shells make when they're clapped together. Most of us examine seashells by looking at them, but there's a lot to be learned about a shell just by holding it in your hand. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

"I pick up a shell, and the first thing I do, is with my hands, I will take a general, quick examination of the shape. And then as soon as you did that, and sort of figure out what it probably is, in general, then you start looking at the details."

For Geerat Vermeij, "looking" means touching and listening, because Vermeij, one of the world's leading authorities on seashells, is blind.

"The details of the outside sculpture -- I have here this cohog clam, and around the inner-edge of the shell there's a nice series of riblets which you can feel with your thumb-nail (he scratches shell), and you can look at the hinge teeth, the muscle scars, and all sorts of other details, and I do that with my fingertips and with the nails on my, on my fingers."

According to Vermeij, it was only by touch that a certain Venezuelan fossil shell was recognized as a new species.

"And it turns out the one of the characters is in fact the number of little cranulations at the edge of its lip, and that differs significantly from the number in a closely-related species. So you never know, and so you often end up counting these little features. Now the other reason for either counting or at least noticing some of these features is that they can be functional. When the clam is shut, the valves don't move easily with respect to one another. They close extremely well, and part of the reason for that is that these ridges hold them together (scratches ridge again in background). So by noticing these ridges, you you notice a functionally useful attribute of the shell."

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.