Inviting you into the heart of inspirational experiences and unforgettable testimonies, Conversations will spark your curiosity and encourage you in your walk with God.

<p>Inviting you into the heart of inspirational experiences and unforgettable testimonies, Conversations will spark your curiosity and encourage you in your walk with God.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written

John Bradshaw

Conversation with Marilee McNeilus

How did you get into collecting seashells?

Well that's an interesting question because I'm really not sure how it evolved.

I know my first recollection of a shell was when we went to Texas, Galveston, saw the ocean for the first time as a child.

And I took my little bit of savings or my allowance money, went into a store and bought shelves, because I was just fascinated by shelves, the beauty, the intricacy, I don't know what it was.

And then years later, after I was married, we went in our little camper with our 2 young children and headed to Florida.

And we camped on the beach in Baya Honda State Park.

And then the tide went out and our boys had little buckets and they would go out and pick up all sorts of things and it's like, what is all this?

And then the people next to us camped were actually collecting shells.

So that just opened up this whole world to me of like, wow, what a beautiful thing that I'm seeing.

Little did I know or realize at that time that shells or mollusks are the second largest phylum in the animal kingdom.

So there's almost a hundred thousand species of shells to get to know here.

And shells are everywhere in the world, you know, and people collect shells everywhere in the world.

I need a crane, I think, to help me with this 1.

And I'm going to ask the question, I don't know quite the best way to put this, but this looks like it was cast in concrete or made of plastic or some such thing.

This might not be representative of every shell in the ocean, but That's a seashell.

So I'm going to ask you what in the world this is, and then I'd like you to explain to me, because I see these as marvels of creation, utter marvels of creation.

I need you to explain what this is and then tell me what a seashell is.

Maybe we should do it 1 way and the other, but we'll do it the other way and then the 1.

This is actually an example of the largest gastropod being a 1 unit shell, which 80% of the shells are gastropods.

And this 1 is a representative of the species, but the largest ones are much larger, the record shell, but this is the largest gaster pod in the world.

Does Broome's location, isolated on the northwestern coast of Australia, Does that lend itself in some way to being a great shell destination?

Well, there's a lot of good species of shells.

Australia is really good shelling in Australia.

Now, someone camping on the beach is going to find 1 of these on the beach?

When we were in Broome, we were at an equinox of the tides of the sun, And there was 30 foot minus tides.

So that means that where there was 30 foot of water, the tide went out far enough that you now could walk there.

And mostly it's not beach, it's rocky puddles, holes, all kinds of just fascinating, fascinating sea life that you're seeing there.

And this is laying, the 1 I collected was, of course, much smaller than that, I think I've given it away, but it was laying on the sandy mud.

But to think that this grew from a little egg.

Most people don't realize that shells grow.

I think we have some examples we can show you, but there's some little growth series and we could find these in these little pools, these little teeny tiny shells.

So let me ask you the basic, maybe ignorant person's question, but I think there's a lot of people who resonate with this question.

What are we looking at when we're looking at a seashell?

So there's an animal, not now of course, but there was an animal inside this.

Well, okay, I think the easy thing, you think about an oyster or a mussel or a scallop that many people are familiar with.

That's the animal, the casing is the home.

It grew just like a baby, just like a child.

The animal in the shell secretes in its mantle cavity, part of the shell, secretes this liquid calcium, it's like a calcium carbonate.

That's what it's made up of, like a bony structure.

The animal lives inside the hard surface.

We have our skin and our bone structure internal.

His rate of growth would depend on food availability, water temperature, other factors in the sea.

And he just continues to grow and maintain.

And then you can see on some shells where they're continually keeping their shell maintained.

I have to ask you the question everybody wants to know the answer to, and that is people like me who we go to the beach and we're always looking, my wife even more so, looking down looking for a shell, hoping to find a nice shell.

But it seems like there are some beaches you can go to over and over and over and over again.

So, so the amateur enthusiast, the person who just likes to find a pretty shell at the beach, what do we need to know to increase our chances of finding a nice shell when we go to the beach?

Well, you need to know what you're looking for.

I wouldn't have a clue, a shell, anything will do.

Conversation with Marilee McNeilus

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