Lucky Shells

This harp shell, and other shells on this page, are part of the Gaskoin Collection of malformed shells, purchased by Liverpool Museum in 1860. The harp shell is from the Pacific Ocean. Its injury was possibly sustained by a falling piece of coral. You can see damage to the top surface of the shell which the mollusc has since repaired.

The Gaskoin Collection was one of the few shell collections to survive the 1941 bombing raids that burnt out much of the museum building. Since then curators have continued to collect malformed shells. They can tell us a lot about how molluscs make their shells.

As the snail grows its soft body lays down well-formed material at the lip of the shell. If a hole is made in the shell, the snail cannot make repairs from the outside so instead plugs the hole from the inside with basic calcareous material (chalky material, containing calcium carbonate).

As far as we can tell, these three molluscs were very lucky. They all survived major injury or attack and lived long enough to repair their damaged shells.

These shells are not on display but you can see others in the collection at both World Museum Liverpool and Sudley House.

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