Guide to Seashells of the World : A Complete Reference Guide to Shells - Softcover

A P H Oliver

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0540085669 ISBN 13: 9780540085668

Publisher: Philips, 2004

Synopsis

This easy-to-use identification guide covers a wide range of shells, from the commonest to the most beautiful and coveted. Shells from all parts of the world - from the Gulf of Alaska to the Cape of Good Hope - are described.

About this title

About the Author

A.P.H. Oliver is an avid collector and has gathered shells all over the world. Many of the specimens for this book are from his extensive private collection.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

A Guide to Seashells of the World -- common shells, popular shells, spectacular shells? To choose any group would be difficult and inevitably subjective, so I have given up the struggle and selected those which I should most like to see illustrated. I believe my tastes are fairly typical of the average collector and hope that I shall, therefore, please most readers while accepting that all of them will ask why a particular shell has been included or left out.

I have devoted the majority of this book to Gastropoda as I believe most collectors find this the most fascinating class. I have included some of the more interesting Bivalvia, and have given a short reference to each of the other classes of mollusk. I have devoted more space to the most popular families, such as the cowries, cones, volutes and strombs. As to species, I have tried to concentrate on the more common shells but some rare, or at best very uncommon, ones are included because they are known and coveted by many collectors, or even because they are particular favorites of mine. A typical example of a species has normally been illustrated, but occasionally a more unusual variety has been included for interest.

Wherever possible the illustrations are life size, but in many cases it has been necessary to alter the scale. However, shells on any one page are in proportion to each other. In addition, the average large size of each species is given in the text. Distribution areas can only be approximate as every month there is news of one or more species being found in a new location.

Classification

Classification of living things is essential to any study of animals and plants to enable their relationships to be determined, It is usually based, according to Linnaeus, on anatomical similarities and differences. The first subdivision is into the animal kingdom and plant kingdom. The animal kingdom is comprised of phyla. The phylum Mollusca, with which this book is concerned, is second only to Arthropoda in number of species. Within each phylum, members are grouped into classes according to gross anatomical differences. Molluscs comprises six classes -- Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Cephalopoda, Scaphopoda, Amphineura, and Monoplacophora -- the main differences between them being in the structure of the shell and foot. Each class is then divided into orders, again according to anatomical differences, though less obvious ones. Members of an order are always grouped into families and then into genera. Intermediate grades such as subclass, suborder, superfamily, subfamily and subgenera are sometimes used. A genus is divided into species, members of a particular species being similar enough to allow interbreeding to result in fertile offspring.

The classification of such a large phylum as Mollusca is inevitably complex, and despite the many books which are available on the subject today, the naming of shells can at times be very difficult even if one is fortunate enough to be able to refer so a well-curated collection at a museum. Taxonomists are constantly finding that species were described under an earlier name than that in current use and the earliest name given is considered to be the valid one. Also, further study of shells and their animals may show that what have been thought to be two separate species are only varieties of the same species, and vice versa.

Scientific name
The scientific name of each species consists of its generic and specific names. These are usually followed by the name of the person who first described and named it (the author) and the date, so that the relevant work can easily be referred to. It has not been possible to specify the dates of the authors' descriptions of some of the species mentioned in this book. Authors' names have not been abbreviated except for Linné or Linnaeus who has been denoted by L.

A Problem of Classification

A shell from my own collection is illustrated here (and has been included on page 175) as an example of the difficulties that may be encountered. I acquired it as Murex radiatus from west Central America. However, there does not appear to be a shell so named. It is not Murexiella radicata Hinds as that has five varices and mine has only three and looks much more like a species of the genus Chicoreus. In An Illustrated Catalog of the Recent Species of the Rock Shells by Maxwell Smith there is an illustration of a shell not unlike mine which he calls Murex (Chicoreus) palmarosse mexicanus Stearns 1897, giving as the locality the Gulf of California. Dr. Myra Keen in Marine Shells of Tropical West America 1st edition puts this under 'Muricidae of doubtful status' and says 'This is to be rejected for two reasons: first the type specimen seems to be an Indo-Pacific form erroneously recorded as from the American coast; second, the name Murex mexicanus Petit 1852, was used for a Caribbean form.'!

Dr E. H. Vokes does not list the name in her Catalog of the Genus Murex Linne; Muricidae and Ocenebridae 1971. Next, checking with the British Museum collection the specimens most like mine are labeled M. (Chicoreus) corrugatus Sowerby 1841, which is found in the Indo-Pacific.

Edition details

• Publisher: Philips
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0540085669
• ISBN 13: 9780540085668
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320