Ok, me two pennies worth sir......
 
First let me ask _Paul ,,,,,What's snow?????
Legend had it that a great floridian explorer (Kendal Weston Bocaraton 1764)
once drove his team of alligators so far north that he encountered some
strange wet white cold matterial covering everything..
Until  now we thought this as only the ratings of a adventurer who breathed
far too much alligator vapors.
 
(SHELL RELATED PART, DON'T GO AWAY YET!!!)
 
Ross Wrote; Some ineresting info coming up.  Seems the primary cause is
injuries to, or abberations of the mantle, at least so far as patterns and
pigments are concerned.
 
The " melanism " could be caused by the mantle piccking up pigments from the
area it frequents, let me explain. At gooland I found a Stombus Alatus that
was  all white except for two parts , a tiny bit of violet ringing the
siphonal canal and the columella  a citrine color, this citrine color was
identical to the color of the citrine oliva sayana , again this color in
both cases seems to be applied by the mantle whether its a pigment the
"foot" is picking up and depositing on the shell or its something in the
diet.
I've also red about " melanism " of the rust colored nature coming from
cypraea collected from ship wrecks , it seems here the rust color is being
picked up and applied to the shell somehow.
 
Thank you ,Mark James & Peta Susan Bethke
3001 South Ocean Dr. Suite 4-V
Hollywood, Florida
33019-2804
U.S.A.
 
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: Ross Mayhew <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, April 14, 1999 4:50 AM
Subject: Re: Porcellanous Problems remain!
 
 
>.  Has any anyone, however, done any biochemical or genetic
>work, to discover whether melanism is caused by a mutation (Why do only
>a small minority of any given population ever become melanistic???), and
>what the biochemistry of the phenomenon is?  Also, i have heard nothing
>but  a vast silence regarding the **precise** cause of rostratism, and
>how it is linked to melanism.
>
>It's snowing here.  Merry Christmas!
>-Ross.
>--
>Ross Mayhew:    Schooner Specimen Shells:
Http://www.schnr-specimen-shells.com
>"We Specialize in the Unusual"
>Phone: (902) 876-2241     Snail Mail; P.O Box 20005, RPO Spryfield,
>Halifax, N.S., Canada, B3R 2K9.
>But try to find "something for Everyone"!!
>