Jose Leal had some good words on Sanibel collecting. The question clearly
struck a hot nerve among Floridian collectors. We Conchlers did repeat some
older material, but learned a lot too, and Lynn Scheu's piece was inspired.
It did surprise me that no baseline studies (with maps, statistics, etc.)
of Sanibel mollusks turned up in the discussion, until Jose pointed out
that none exist. Now, that is not so surprising. It's hard to get funding
to study some of the most famous fossil sites, simply because everyone on
the board of review assumes that it must have been done before. So some
malacological sites are often referred to in the literature, but no one
really knows all the details. A book such as Gundersen's that covers the
elements of the fauna that are present is called "alpha taxonomy", and as
you might imagine from its being named for the first letter of the Greek
alphabet, it is just the start! (Incidentally, I haven't seen the book yet,
but from what people say, it's a good start, and I am looking forward to
it.)
 
Thanks for the public and private messages on Phuket Island, Thailand. No,
I am not planning a trip, unfortunately. One of the demigods of
paleontology, Dolf Seilacher, wrote about the shell deposits there, and I
wanted to have the shell collector's impressions. Dolf says that the storms
accumulate the shells in layers. As the waves die down, the shelly layers
are buried under mud. This is similar to the model for shell deposits in
the Eocene strata of Alabama (USA), so I am curious to hear about the shell
collectors' impressions.
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama