What are spirals of seashells?

Spirals of seashells are the curly patterns that grow around the inside of some shells, like a snail's home.

Imagine you have a tiny house, but it’s not just any house. It grows bigger and bigger as your snail friend gets older. The shell starts off small, then adds more space around it, layer by layer, in a twirling way, like when you wrap a present with ribbon, except the ribbon keeps getting longer and longer.

Every time the snail eats or grows, it adds a new part to its home. This new part is a bit bigger than the last one, so it makes the spiral wider as it goes on. It's like stacking rings around a finger, each ring is a little bigger than the one before.

Think of a drill bit, when you twist it in wood, it makes a circle that gets deeper and wider. Spirals of seashells are kind of like that, but they’re made by a snail’s body as it grows over time.

So next time you pick up a shell from the beach, try tracing the spiral with your finger, it's like following the path of a growing home!