Shells are exoskeletons of living creatures and have fascinated humans for millennia – they have been collected and treasured for their beauty, used in religious rituals, and even traded as currency. Interesting Shells presents striking portraits of specimens from the London Natural History Museum’s shell collections, one of the largest resources of its kind in the world. Each portrait includes a caption which reveals the most interesting biological, historical and geographic details.
Andreia Salvador is senior curator of Marine Mollusca, at the Natural History Museum, London. Her research interests also include the history of collecting, voyages and expeditions in malacology, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries.