Hi Corynne,
On the list are people with a wide range of interests. Some are specialists
in a particular family of molluscs. A cone specialist for example might be
able to identify any cone shell you could possibly come up with, but defer
to a murex specialist to identify an obscure species from that family. Other
people, myself included, are generalists. I know most of the commoner cones
and murexes, but might not be able to help on the more obscure species in
either family. On the other hand, I might be able to ID some wierd
Nassarius or Cancellaria or bivalve that the specialists might not be
familiar with. And of course any serious collector, specialist or
generalist, has a collection of books which deal with his/her area(s) of
interest, where we can verify our opinions and look up species we are
uncertain of. Which is why a list like Conch-L is so valuable. It allows
the individual knowledge and experience of many people to be pooled, so that
others, newbies and oldies, can freely dip into that pool when they need
something.
On one of the websites I mentioned in my last post, seashell-collector.com,
there is section devoted entirely to identification of unknown specimens.
At any given time there are species which have been discovered but not yet
named, and also species which have not yet been discovered. New species are
discovered every year.
Paul M.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Corynne Buchanan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: 2 questions from a newbie - and 1 more question
Paul C, Paul M, Bobbi, Tom, and the nice people who replied off-list,
Wow, thanks for all the help, book and magazine suggestions, websites, ebay
opinions. I was intimidated to post on a list like this, thanks for being so
nice to a newbie. :D I promise not to post very often, and instead I'll
read and learn some things.
A couple of you suggested shell clubs, and that would be fun. I looked
online. The nearest one is more than an hour away, and their link didn't
work anyway. But then in 5 months I am moving to an uninspiring state with
no seashells or clubs in it. Don't ask why lol.
But then in the summer I am going to Alaska for a week...I wonder if I might
find some nice shells there. Kind of cold maybe! Then in January...Hawaii
for a week or two! (I want to learn more about looking for shells in
Hawaii.)
Here’s one more question, just curious. There was a gentleman on the list
who asked for help with an ID for a couple of murex from Mozambique. So when
someone needs help like that, what do others on the list do? Is there
usually someone who happens to have the same shell and knows what it is? Or
do you all get out your reference books? Or can you make educated guesses
based on how it looks similar to something else? Or what happens?
For fun, I looked at one of the mystery shells, and then was googling
Mozambique murexes to compare them, but anyone could do that. It's
fascinating to me that someone who obviously knows a lot about shells, needs
to know what one might be. How do you all figure it out? Are there a lot of
unknown species still?
Corynne
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