Wednesday 08 July
It’s been a soggy old day today. It’s like laying under a damp blanket. One of those days when I don’t feel I have fully dried from the shower I had this morning. But, I also had a Cadburys Crunchie today; first time in ages and it was fantastic. So, not all bad.
I am reading up about arachnids and molluscs. Not closely related but are both invertebrates, so share the biological feature of having no backbone. I’ve come across a few adults who could also fall into that category too, metaphorically of course.
Whilst walking on the beach at the weekend there was a patch that was just sand and razorshells. It was like walking on a huge slab of peanut- brittle which crushed under foot.
Many moluscs wear the protection for their soft-bodies on the outside whereas mammals have their skeleton on the inside. Razorshells live vertically in the sand and can either rise-up or burrow through muscular contraction and expansion.
Their muscular ‘foot’ is pumped with blood which anchors it to then pull it deeper into the sand. Quite an amazing creature really. Living in the sand means it doesn’t have to have a particularly strong shell.
The number of times I have walked on these used shells and picked them up but never learned about them.
The Bald Birder 