S. Sneidar wrote:
>
> David, I too put 'less than perfect' shells in my collection. I figure I
> can allways upgrade as I get better specimens. I will even put pieces of
> readily identifiable shells in my collection.  What the heck, it is my
> collection  and I can do it anyway I want.  :-) -- Regards, Sid Sneidar
>
>>  am I the only one who persists in pondering less-than-perfect material? -- David Kirsh

* for those who collect to record faunas and the ecological conditions
they occupy, every shell, worn or fresh, has equal importance. A
predominance of worn shells among healthy living populations, can be a
welcome, if sometimes aesthetically frustrating, indication of low
mortality rates, while fresh shells can mean that Zebra mussels, or some
other agent of mortality, has gotten loose among the population.

In "Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life," Geerat
Vermeij deplores the lack of ecological samples of shells in
collections, and outlines all the kinds of hypotheses that can be tested
using such collections. This was the inspiration for our "library of
drifted material" -- http://pinicola.ca/cldm.htm

fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
             Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
           Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
        RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
     on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
       (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca
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