Uniqueness and Magnificence

This series wants to highlight the peculiarity of some specimens present in the museum's collection. The mollusks depicted are particularly interesting for their characteristics, such as shapes and colors that create a significant visual impact. Light enhances the silhouette of these shells; their appearance is reminiscent of natural and anthropic elements. In the images represented, the viewer can see from an unusual perspective what is normally classified with objective and scientific criteria.

A Cymbula oculus in backlight; only in South Africa

A “rhinoceros horn” that lives on the sandy bottoms of the Indo-Pacific (Turritella terebra)

A top view of a Vasum ceramicum from Indonesia

Although the heart is the symbol of warmth, this prefers the cold waters of Northern Europe (Glossus humanus)

Once this was known as the very rare Cypraea guttata; today it's called Perisserosa guttata and is commonly fished under 100 meters of depth

The harmonious Harpa costata were and remain one of the rarest shells of the Mauritius Islands

The warm oriental colors of a japanese specimen of Mikadotrochus hirasei

This crown of thorns lives only in the Philippines (Cymbiola imperialis)

Two very close relatives: Chicoreus palmarosae from Sri Lanka (left) and Chicoreus saulii from the Philippines (right)

The Ceratostoma burnetti prefers the cold waters of northern Japan and those icy temperatures of the Bering Sea

Just like a "flying saucer", the Haliotis ruber lives only in South Australia

The variegated colors of the beautiful Harpa doris that lives along the tropical coast of West Africa

The magical spirals of two Babylonia’s shells

The Turbo argyrostomus has an impenetrable home door

Spondylus spend their whole life attached to the rocks and hidden between algae and sponges

The impenetrable armor of the Spondylus echinatus

The Swiftopecten swiftii is native to the cold waters of the northern Pacific coasts of Japan and Russia

The toothed rainbow of a philippinian Nemocardium

The bicolored Spondylus butleri

The Siratus alabaster lives in the muddy depths of Japan and Philippines

Babelomurex live by parasitizing corals and madrepores

Gaudì was inspired by the Epitonum scalare in designing the spiral staircases of the Sagrada Familia

Legend has it that this was the comb of Venus (Murex pecten)

The sunrise interpreted by a Bolma girgyllus

This species feeds on soft corals in which it lives buried (Rapa rapa)

A pair of angel wings (Cyrtopleura costata)

A chain of volcanoes (Barnacles)

The wonderful mother of pearl of the Haliotis iris (New Zealand)