A 250-million-year-old fossil of a marine snail shell in pristine condition. The shell was one of the thousands examined in the study. Scale bar = 100 µm Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not ...

Eleanor has an undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of Reading and a master’s in wildlife documentary production from the University of Salford. Eleanor has an undergraduate degree in ...

Snail shells are often colourful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on ...

Pigments in fossil snail shells from Austria dating back 12 million years are the oldest known preserved dyes from the polyene group, as scientists from the Natural History Museum Vienna and the ...

A tiny snail trapped in ancient amber has scientists puzzling over the usefulness of hairy shells. Could they make the critters more sexually attractive? Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers ...