As a beach comber I love to search beaches for fun finds. Most of what I find are shells: shells from gastropods, bi-valves, and mollusks. Crabs have shells (exoskeleton) they shed in order to grow a new, larger one. Sand dollars and sea urchins leave behind their test (endoskeleton).

Shell is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it is a protective cover, coating or housing. It could be the hull of a boat, the water-proof coating on a jacket or part of an atom, for example. As a verb it means the act of finding shells on the beach, removing shells from food or bombarding something. With Mardi Gras season approaching I can’t resist this example: “The parade goers were shelled with doubloons and moon pies.”

As I am currently sitting land-locked this bitter cold winter thinking of shells and looking forward to the warm weather, I started thinking of other things that have shells. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Turtle
2. Armadillo
3. Ammunition
4. Eggs
5. Candy (like M&Ms)
6. Nuts
7. Peas have pods but when we remove them, we call them shells
8. Coconuts
9. A really shy person
10. A chrysalis

Can you come up with more?