"> With due respect to Eisenberg, we are dealing with many tens of thousands
of
> species.....Quite an impressive figure and I doubt that Conch-L
> members would be able to hold their concentration or youthful zeal long
enough."


Kev,

I agree with what you stated (maybe even understated), both on the vast size
of this "project" and the lasting power of the "youthful zeal" of Conch-L
members.  However, I think something like this is due.  Even limited to well
known families it would be valuable.  I find myself using Poppe's list of
species or Rice's list, all the time.  These are accepted as limited
products, but still very valuable.  All we need do is add a bit of
description and an image of two -- first for the families (I've done that
for all gastropod families in my collection plus a few I am still looking
for), then for the genera.

In this vein, at the Louisville COA convention, Jeff Schroeder demonstrated
a database he is building named SeaBase.  One of his ideas was to eventually
use this database or something similar to catalog as many species as
possible, with images, and all available on the Internet for general use.
This is just a natural extension of Poppe's work and that of Eddie Hardy.
If Jeff's project ever comes to fruition, it could serve as a central
repository where list members could enter data and images on shells.  Yeah,
I know, we would need some serious review process -- but that also can be
done.

Just kickin' the dog here to see what is underneath,

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA