Photo of ram’s horn squid shell

A tiny spiral-shaped shell sits on a wooden desk in front of a blue background. The shell is about the size of a fingernail, and peppered with sand grains.

The intricate ram’s horn squid shell is only about the size of a fingernail. Compared to other cephalopod species, the shell structure has not degraded over time. As part of this study, researchers used transcriptomics which revealed genes supporting biomineralization and regeneration of the shell.

Date:
30 March 2026
Credit:
Catherine Hodges/OIST

Copyright OIST (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 沖縄科学技術大学院大学). Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

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