I been looking out some specimens of oyster shells that I collected from modern oyster beds on the south coast of England in the early 1980s. Way back in the early to mid 20th century, the hulls of boats were often coated with anti-fouling paint containing Tri-butyl tin (TBT). It was discovered that seawater contaminated with this chemical had an affect on some marine invertebrates. One of the noticeable phenomena was the way its presence caused the shell layers and chambers of the imported Pacific oyster (Crassosrea gigas) to wildly proliferate. Shells do in fact thicken naturally with age anyway – but in shells affected by TBT the rate of thickening is abnormal. Ultimately this unusual thickening prevented the oyster from opening up its two shell valves to feed and thus caused death of the organism.
A lot of research has been done regarding the affects of TBT on oysters. Laws have been introduced banning the substance in anti-fouling paints. The specimen illustrated in this post (with the images showing the same shell from various perspectives) is probably a rare survivor from the era when such abnormalities were fairly common. Nowadays, proliferation in shell growth of this type is more likely to be caused naturally and not chemically induced.
