>In years gone by I had experience with some old Texas dealers (now long
>passed) who created the data labels on-the-spot strictly from information in
>a shell book.  If the book said Philippines that was the data, if it said
>Indo-Pacific, that was it, etc.
>
>That said, I then knew the data for any shell I might buy from them could
>be, and probably was totally bogus.  It wasn't intended as disinformation,
>it was just they way they did things with loads of shells they had with no
>data.


That is what I would call unforgivable ignorance.

One Philippines dealer all of a sudden began to give out less
specific data for his shells. When I questioned him he said that he
didn't want to pass on falsified data, and would only supply as good
as he could guarantee.

Now, I believe that most of the Philippines dealers buy from
middlemen, and these guys (the middlemen) are not at all careful
about making sure that data does not become mixed-up in the
shell-markets... also the fishermen falsify the locality so that
other fishermen hopefully won't go looking in "their" spots. Depth
data are probably suspect too. What primitive fisherman is going to
bother to write down the details of each haul and keep the specimens
segregated? WHERE are they going to keep the separated lots of
shells? How many of these guys can even afford to buy the pens &
paper that would be required? They are POOR as in basically
destitute. I doubt most of them can ever read, either.

So in general it may be correct that PI specimens with detailed
"data" are falsely-localized, and that at best only the province or
island (Bohol, Leyte, Sulu etc) are correct. Possibly not even that.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
‚ Opinions stated are mine, not of the University of Otago
"There is water at the bottom of the ocean"  - Talking Heads

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------