I'll have to come out from under my bridge on this subject...

I don't know Mr. Lorenz personally, but I did spend US$100 on
his revised "Guide To Worldwide Cowries." There are some nice
images but very little that I can find to justify the price.
There is a serious problem with "naming" (proposing names for)new cowries
AND being a dealer in those commodities. It looks
like business, NOT science.

In a section added to that edition, a new species is 'named'
and a holotype and two paratypes are shown. However, the types
specimens cannot be placed in a public institution "due to the
high commercial value of these specimens..." There are other
problems with this description but they are not worth the
time to present.

To sum up the two major problems with this (and similar) work,
there is no useable, new information about cowries and the book
should have been written in the authors' native language THENtranslated to
english (or other marketable area) by someone
capable of doing so. There are more problems, but I'll save
those for the Amazon.com review I'll post later.

ANYONE who deals in the commercial trade of cowies AND names
new species is only enhancing the commercial aspect of that
business. At least, that's how I see it. And, again, nothing
personal about Mr. Lorenz,... his work simply epitomizes the
phenomenon.

Uh oh! Sun's coming up and everyone knows that a troll turns
to stone if he's caug......................................
...........................................................

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