Ellen:  The Typhis pinnatus is rarer because it is harder to find.   It sounds
like a beauty!

Jim Cordy

Ellen Bulger wrote:

> Howdy campers,
>
> On my recent trip to George Town in the Exumas*, I found what I thought was a
> Typhis triangularis. But it was a bigger than the ones I remembered from the
> Abacos, and prettier. Looking at it, I wondered, why had I turned my nose up
> at them?
>
> But the ones in the Abacos were little webby things. This, while small, was
> large enough to appreciate, 25mm. It's like no shell I'd ever found and has
> elegant frilled growth varices and spines that are hollow tubes with open
> ends.
>
> I finally got around to looking it up in the Compendium and discovered it is
> a Pinnate typhis; Pterotyphis pinnatus. (Does pinnatus mean feathered?) Not
> rare like the triangularus, merely uncommom. But gorgeous. A treasure. And
> mine is nicer than the one in the Compendium.
>
> I take it out of the case. I roll it around on my palm. I gloat over it. I'm
> smitten.
>
> WHO decides what is rare and what is uncommon? I'd never seen one of these
> before! What is the difference, frequency-wise? On my trip to the Abacos with
> the Cordys, I found two triangularis and Jim Cordy found two. So, in my
> limited experience, they are more common!  ; )
>
> Ellen
>
> *The prettiest place in the Bahamas.

--
Jim and Bobbi Cordy
Specializing in Self Collected Caribbean Species
Merritt Island Florida

SPACE COAST SHELL FESTIVAL
"King Neptunes Shell Palace"
January 18-20,2002