Ive seen purple, bright pink, even bright yellow and green! Where does the beautiful color come from?
The shells are not, as is often thought, painted or dyed. The colors are sometimes determined by heredity but in some species can also be influenced by the diet of the animal. Color in mollusks often serves as camouflage, but some pigments are primarily structural in function, serving to strengthen the shell. The yellows and reds of beta carotene are an example. Other colors, usually iridescent “mother-of-pearl” hues, are due to light refraction in combination with the actual structure of a translucent shell material.
