Hi,

First I would like to say that the data is as important as the shell.  With data the shell can become
part of the mass of meta data gathered about environments, environmental changes, species
composition, the range of physical characteristics for a species....  The list goes on, and is not
limited to what we currently record or think is important to record.  Just like a book in the library,
someone else later on can look at the shell and data and use it it ways we never dreamed of.  So
whatever you do - do collect and keep location data for your shells.  Without data the shells are
still beautiful to look at, and may be artistically inspiring, but that is about the limit of their
usefulness.  Don't get me wrong my house is littered with data-less shells and I do love them all.

We need to remember dealers are also human and can make mistakes too, or be re-selling shells
someone else mis-labled.  Though I don't often purchase shells, the dealers I have purchased
shells from have been very knowledgable and helpful.  If you have a problem with a purchase, you
should contact the dealer and work out the problem together (and NOT on this list).

I once had someone donate a wonderful small but very good collection of shells their
grandparents had collected while living overseas to the musuem.  The only problem was all the
little slips of paper with data had fallen out of the shells when they were packing them up and they
had thrown them all away!  It was so sad.  The shells became part of the educaton/exhibit
collection instead of the research collection.

Amy

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