Heart cockle shells in natural light (top row) and illuminated from within to show the transparent shell windows, which vary from little triangles to stripes to mosaics. Credit: Dakota McCoy A team of ...

SLURPING OYSTERS from their shells may be a rare indulgence for humans, but these bivalve molluscs and their relatives, such as clams and mussels, slurp for a living. Most are filter feeders, ...

Healthy corals are colorful and full of life. And under normal conditions, corals and algae depend on one another. The corals offer the algae protection and the photosynthesizing algae provide the ...

A heart cockle shell has been found to let in light through a design that resembles fiber optic cables. This could inspire everything from helping coral survive to designing new camera lenses. There's ...

While the cockles could give the algae some light by periodically opening their shells, doing so would leave their tender insides vulnerable to predators. Instead, they have evolved translucent ...

This week’s low midafternoon tides provided excellent beachcombing conditions around lunchtime. I found a variety of treasures, including pen shells, pear whelks, and hundreds of Atlantic cockles.

One hundred thousand years ago, a human cousin walked a rock- ribbed beach along the Mediterranean Sea, her head lowered and her large eyes scanning the shoreline. Now and again she stopped, bent her ...