I love freaks - probably because i'm a bit of a one myself!!  Anyway, i am puzzled about how some of them form: most can be fairly easily tucked away in 6 or 7 categories: developmental, genetic (from rare colors/patters at one end all the way up to Major Mutant), pollution-related, injury-related (shell or mantle), natural contaminants (like nickel in the New Caladonia marine environmnent....), disease-freaks and gerontic features (almost every species has its own particular favorite oddities when it gets old...). (admittedly many freaks could be due to multiple causes, however: combinations of conditions instead of just one)  However, some shells, like some people i guess, you just have to wonder how in the world they ended up that way! This is one:
http://www.schnr-specimen-shells.com/34146.JPG - the "melted" one on the left.  Any theories??

-Ross M, in sunny New Scotland


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