Seems i have been misjudging the Cypraidae crowd - they are a lot more
clever than i had thought!  (but still shamelessly overpriced and
oversplit!!!).  In any case, here are a few questions i have long
wondered about, which i toss out to the Cyp people on the list:
 
1) **exactly** how does melanism occur, and why do the cowries seem to
be the only famile that displays this feature to such an extent?
2) why does rostratism, and to a lesser extent, freak pattern formation,
often accompany melanism?
3) why do cowry shells display so many more kinds of anomalies and
malformations than any other mollusc families - seems  they are more
often deformed, diseased, or just plain odd, far more often, and in more
ways than any other taxa of our favorite phylum - but why??
 
-Loose Canon in Canada,
-Ross M.
--
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"!!