Dead or alive, the chestnut cowry, a snail with a brilliant shell, strongly draws the human eye with its beauty. The polished shine of the cowry shell varies in tone from white below to deep chestnut ...

Just in time for summer, an old trend from the early 2000s is making a big comeback this season. Jewelry designers all over the world are channeling the natural beauty of the oceans for their summer ...

All these snakehead cowries were found dead. Sand grains wedged in the opening are a sure sign that neither the cowry nor a hermit crab lives inside. Select an option below to continue reading this ...

While snorkeling off a windward beach, I found a marine animal on the ocean floor in about 10 feet of water. The creature lay buried in the sand, belly up, with just its teeth showing. I could barely ...

“Before you do anything else,” curator Chris Meyer said the minute I arrived at the National Museum of Natural History’s Invertebrate Zoology collection, “you have to vote for beauty.” He led me ...

When Harfa Haq is not finger-painting or beautifying hand-woven baskets in her Nyali residence in Mombasa, she is in her “little garden” on her balcony watching dangling cowrie shells arranged in ...

As Diwali 2024 is here, the significance of this vibrant festival is felt profoundly within the Hindu community. Celebrated as the Festival of Lights, Diwali symbolizes the triumph of light over ...

Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2001), pp. 27-38 (12 pages) Ornamental employment of Chestnut Cowry (Cypraea spadicea) shell artifacts in southern California ...