After 18,000 years of silence, an ancient musical instrument played its first notes. The last time anyone heard a sound from the conch shell trumpet, thick sheets of ice still covered most of Europe.

WASHINGTON — A large conch shell overlooked in a museum for decades is now thought to be the oldest known seashell instrument — and it still works, producing a deep, plaintive bleat, like a foghorn ...

From kids walking on the beach to major museums, the amazing diversity of conch shells have captivated the eyes of collectors. And with more than 50,000 estimated living species bearing a shell, ...