[js1138]

What is this nonsense about shells not being part of an organism? Does this mean that insects' exoskeletons are not part of the organism? Or that hair is not part of an organism?

[gore3000]

What is this nonsense about shells not being part of an organism? Does this mean that insects' exoskeletons are not part of the organism? Or that hair is not part of an organism?"

Are you saying that a woman with long hair is a different species than one with short hair? That a woman with the hair tied up at the top is a different species than one who lets her hair just fall? Mollusks and other shelled animals (tortoises for example) can get out of their shells. The shell says absolutely nothing about the animal inside except perhaps as to its relative size (but then there are small mollusks and they change and make new shells as they grow up).