Conchologists and malacologists:
 
     For those of you into really obscure but interesting molluscs, there
     is a new handbook out which describes the molluscan fauna associated
     with some of the known deep-sea hydrothermal vents around the world's
     continental spreading axes:
 
             Desbruyeres, D. and M. Segonzac. 1997.  Handbook of Deep-Sea
             Hydrothermal Vent Fauna. Editions IFREMER, Brest. 279 p.
 
     This first edition was published under the auspices of InterRidge, an
     international consortium of scientists/institutions conducting
     research on and around the many vent systems at oceanic spreading
     centers discovered since 1977.  This was when remarkable
     chemosynthetic communities ("the biological discovery of the century")
     were first discovered on manned submersible dives on the 2500-m deep
     crest of the Galapagos Rift.  The book was actually meant to allow sub
     pilots and scientists to recognize and collect the most valuable
     (scientifically) forms on expensive dives with limited bottom time,
     and as an ID guide in the lab.  Typically the chemo-communities and
     vent habitats are in waters from ~400 to 4,000m in depth.
 
     Unfortunately, this volume costs about $175 on sale, but those of you
     at academic institutions might be able to get your library to get it
     for you.  Pages 109-160 are devoted to the gastropods, bivalves and
     cephalopods, and the rest is everything from sponges to fishes.
     (Whew, some of the fish are ugly!)  There are about 70 gastropods
     mentioned, some (many) of which have not received specific names.
     None have common names, and few are really pretty.  There seem to be
     some really primitive forms but no neopilinas.  New species are being
     described all the time.  For those of you who are restricted to the
     continental shelf <200m, these animals may prove interesting.
     Actually, three genera, Acharax, Calyptogena, and Bathymodiolus, with
     their several species, directly contribute to the chemosynthetic
     fixation of carbon in the ecosystem using symbiotic chemoautotrophic
     bacteria in their gills.  Some are living in areas where water over
     350 degrees C (660 degrees F) is issuing out of the rocks.  Most
     species hang out in the community, presumably for food.
 
     Incidentally, similar forms have been found here in the Gulf of Mexico
     at cold seeps at less than 1,000m depth.  But here they eat natural
     hydrocarbons seepage (methane) rather than hydrogen sulfide.
 
     This ain't Sanibel Island, baby!  You thought Janthina had strange
     habits.
 
 
     Robert M. Avent, Ph.D.
     Oceanographer
     Minerals Management Service
     New Orleans.