In a university swimming pool, scientists and their underwater cameras watch carefully as a coiled shell is released from a pair of metal tongs. The shell begins to move under its own power, giving ...

Scientists have now created a number of robotic ammonites, to see how the different shell shapes they evolved affected their movement through the water. Ammonites belonged to the cephalopod group of ...

These extinct shelled cephalopods ruled the ocean for 300 million years. But how they swam and shaped the seas remains a mystery. "Snake stones" or ancient sea creature? Credit: opacity/flickr/CC ...

In Baculites, a straight shelled ammonite, the constructional limits on shell shape resulting from the limited strength of nacre in tension are circumvented by a system of vaults in the phragmocone.

Robotic ammonites, evaluated in a university pool, allow researchers to explore questions about how shell shapes affected swimming ability. They found trade-offs between stability in the water and ...