For what it's worth :
I once tried using a microwave to cook up a recalcitrant Conus australis
which had fled into its shell. I figured that if I cooked the meat, it
would then rot faster. Into the 650 watt microwave, then, and one minute on
'cook'. Bang! Open the door - bits of shell everwhere, but the specimen
still intact on the turntable. A large piece had blown out of the dorsum,
leaving a crater, but the shell had not exploded. Examination revealed a
small growth scar leading towards the crater. I think some water had been
trapped either in the growth scar or in some microscopic sponge-root holes
I also found elsewhere on the shell. The water trapped between layers of
shell had boiled and blown the layers apart.
Moral - er...in this case, use of the microwave damaged a specimen.