Seashell Beauty and the Concept of Nature at Play

By Richard Raskin

The poet Pablo Neruda kept a box of seashells on his desk for inspiration and was in awe of their beauty.

But does that beauty serve a survival function for the mollusk that produced it? Does it help to attract a mate, to capture prey, to ward off predators? If not, does that very beauty defy the principle that 'Nature does nothing in vain'? In addressing these basic questions, Raskin discusses a controversial answer that many will find intriguing.

This little book on seashells, with its many photos, will deepen your appreciation of their beauty — and invite you to consider nature in a light you may never have expected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quid Pro, LLC
• Release date: Feb 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781610274111

Richard Raskin

Richard Raskin is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture—Media Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Book preview

SEASHELL BEAUTY

and the concept of

NATURE AT PLAY

Richard Raskin

Smashwords edition. Copyright © 2021 by Richard Raskin. All rights reserved.

Published in 2021 by Quid Pro Books, at Smashwords.

ISBN 978-1-61027-411-1 (ePUB)

ISBN 978-1-61027-410-4 (paperback)

Quid Pro Books

5860 Citrus Blvd., suite D

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

www.quidprobooks.com

For Marilyn,

love of my life

CONTENTS

Preface

Fact sheet on Conus marmoreus

1. Nature does nothing in vain

2. Adaptive functions: the ‘usual suspects’

a. Attracting a mate

b. Capturing prey

c. Camouflage

d. Warning coloration

e. Color polymorphism

3. Pattern as a byproduct of the shell’s growing edge process

4. Nature at play

5. Conclusions

For comparison’s sake

Bibliography

Photographic credits, acknowledgments

Name index

About the author

Preface

Although I have kept favorite seashells on my desk for years where I could look at them every day, it had never occurred to me to ask whether their beautiful patterns might have served some purpose for the mollusk that produced them. Nor had I ever considered what it might mean if those striking patterns served no discernible function, despite the principle that nature does nothing in vain.

These are the questions I am addressing in this little book, written at a time when the world is in the grip of a deadly virus.

With no academic credentials relevant to this endeavor – my university background is in the Humanities – I am working outside my comfort zone and have had to learn new styles of thinking while acquiring basic information that any student of marine biology would know. This has been a challenging and rewarding process, helping me to use these days of confinement with an overriding purpose in mind.

A firm believer in the less is more principle, and inspired by a statement Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once made – perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away (1939: 65), I wanted this essay to be