Tink,

Dead or alive in the shell world will always be a bone of contention.  Most
collectors have shells that were collected alive because these shells are
generally in the best shape with the most vibrant colors.  There was a test
published a few years ago that showed that a cowrie shell could lose all of
it surface gloss if wave washed on a sandy beach for 30 to 60 minutes!  But
in other environments a "dead" shell can retain its color and structure for
quite some time.  I am afraid this is something you will just have to decide
for yourself.

As for web sites to aid in identification, there are any number of good
sites (and a few not so good ones!).  You will find an extensive list of
such at: http://home.planet.nl/~spirula/crossref.htm  But I would say the
top three for numbers of species pictures are:

Jose & Marcus Coltro's site at: http://www.femorale.com.br/
Rich Goldberg's site at: http://users.erols.com/worldwide/
Eddy Hardy's gastropod site at: http://www.gastropods.com/
Guido Poppe's site at: http://www.conchology.be/cyberconchology/

Three of these sites are commercial shell dealer sites, but each has decided
to spend some web site space (actually quite a bit of space and a lot of
time and energy - thanks to each of you!) and retain images of shells for
use by shell collectors.  Each of these sites is searchable and contains a
wealth of images.  But their use for identification can be tricky if you
don't first have a knowledge of at least the family you are looking for.
For this, nothing beats a good shell book like the Compendium by Abbott and
Dance or some other general shell book.  These books will get you more
familiar with the different family characteristics and will make your time
searching the web a bit more fruitful.  Good luck and welcome to the list,

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico
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