The current status and the development of the degenerated shell finiteelements are reviewed in the present article. First, flat plate shell finite ele-ments and curvcd shell finite elements based upon the shell theory are brieflyintroduced.Then single-variable(displacement type) degcnerated shell finiteelements are reviexved.Finally,multi-variable(hybrid, mixed, quasi-conformingand hybrid/mixed types)shell finite elements are discussed.