In the good ol' U.S. of A. we have the following museums:

Oldest and largest molluscan collections in U.S.A. (a few million cataloged
specimens - maybe their curators can verify the number of cataloged lots)

OLDEST:
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

LARGEST:
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington,
D.C.

EQUALLY IMPORTANT:
American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massechusetts

OTHER IMPORTANT & FAMOUS MOLLUSCAN COLLECTIONS ARE HOUSED AT THESE
INSTITUTIONS - more than 100,000 catalogued specimens and with important
regional holdings (not listed in any particular order):

  Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
  Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainsville
  Bishop Museum (The State Museum of Natural and Cultural History), Honolulu
  Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
  California Academy of Sciences, Natural History Museum, San Francisco
  Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh
  Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
  Illinois Natural History Survey Mollusk Collection, Champaign, Illinois

All of the above institutions are actively involved in invertebrate -
molluscan -  paleontological research. Sorry if I've left off any
institutions from this list.  These are the one's that immediately come to
mind.

Rich
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
worldwideconchology.com
http://www.worldwideconchology.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Chlamys Varia [log in to unmask]
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2002 12:52:42 +0200
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Questions from a non-sheller


> Dear Conchlers,
>
> I had an e-mail from a non-sheller requesting some information. Can you
> please help me to answer some of his questions A.S.A.P?
>
> 1. Where are the most famous museum or university collections?
      Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt
      Natural History Museum Vienna
      Natural History Museum London
      Museum in Sidney
      the Americans should tell where are the most important museums there

> 2. What are the rarest microshells and the rarest macroshells?
      this is a request not to be answered as it is impossible

> 3.When you go collecting, how many shells worth keeping are you likely to
> find in a day?
   it is depending on land- or marine shells and where or what you like
collect.
   In some places you might find over 100 species a day, whe you also count
the
   micros

> 4. How quickly have beaches gone from rich in good shells to poor in good
> shells, and do they ever make a comeback?
> 5. Is there a way to determine accurately how old a shell is when you find
> it, how many years ago it was created?
> 6. What shell websites are most worth seeing, rich in images and accurate
> information?
>
> Thanks,
> Kobie du Preez
>

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