Dear Marco & all,


the fact we placed this species in Cypraeidae has nothing to do with
commercial purposes. The evidence is that NO Ovulid has this kind of
shelly material which is a 100 % Cypraeid. And no Ovulids have this
kind of glaze with a mantle line. Also not this kind of teeth which
are again Cypraeid, reversed phenomenon as in Cypraea guttata.  The
limit between both families is also not very clear: Pseudocypraea is
in Ovulidae while a capensis stays in Cypraeidae. This great shell of
which I refuse to write the name - I'll never handle them again -
even if they are 1 $ each - may well deserve a family on its own.

I'm very frustrated that some people still believe there is any
financial purpose in describing shells.  Can one imagine the money I
- or other dealers -  should make if I  - we - did not write on
shells... Each publication takes days and I can assure that one day
in a modern enterprise, even in a third world country is A LOT OF
MONEY. Not the kind of money one can even dream of getting back when
writing on shells instead of dealing.

The more, one does not even need any name in order to sell such a
shell at the price I sold it. Others offered much more before the
description...

Guido


On 22 Dec 2005, at 22:30, Marco Oliverio wrote:

> ahem ......
> actually, Chimaeria incomparabilis, although it was described as a
> cypraeid, is evidently an ovulid. Fehse has published on it and
> associated
> it to fossil ovulid groups.
> It may be argued that it was originally placed in cypraeids
> (despite its
> very evident ovulid morphology) due to commercial reasons .....
> After all,
> an ovulid would hardly be sold at 20,000 US$
>
>
> At 10.06 22/12/2005 -0200, you wrote:
>
>> The most expensive shell I've heard was a Cypraea (Chimaeria
>> incomparabilis)
>> from Somalia. It was sold at US$ 20,000 - but I am not sure if
>> anyone would
>> pay that price today.
>>
>> Marcus
>>
>>
>> Marcus Coltro
>> WWW.FEMORALE.COM
>>
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>
> =========================================================
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>
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