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before i left for manila, i passed by the Home Products Handicraft Store for some pasalubongs for my american friends back in LA. this one caught my fancy- a collection of some philippine shells put together forming a curtain-like decoration for a bathroom window.

a shell is the hard, rigid outer covering, or integument, of certain animals. more specific scientific names include exoskeleton, carapace, and peltidium. a shell maybe made of nacre (a combination of calcium and protein), chitin, bone and cartilage, or silica.

while many sea animals produce exoskeletons, usually only those of molluscs (also mollusk) are normally considered to be "sea shells". the majority of shell-forming molluscs belong to the classes gastropoda (univalves, or snails) or bivalvia.

the shell will grow over time as the animal inside adds its building material to the leading edge near the opening. this causes the shell to be longer and wider to better accommodate the growing animal inside.
molluscs shells (especially those formed by marine species) are very durable and outlast the otherwise soft-bodied animals that produce them by a very long time (sometimes thousands of years).

shells of marine molluscs (some of which washed up in beaches or live in the intertidal or sub-tidal zones and are therefore easily found without specialized equipment) are called "seashells", and are collected by a large number of enthusiasts, especially in the tropical and subtropical areas of our planet, where there are more species of colorful, large and intertidal seashells than in regions further north.

information source : wikipedia