>Bear in mind that data for beached shells tell you nothing about the
>habitat of the living animal, and can sometimes be totally erroneous.
>There've been instances of Indo-Pacific shells being found on Florida
>beaches - the result of a child buying a basket of "tourist shells" in a
>local shell shop and then wandering along the beach dropping a few...

Yes, I once found the canal of a Murex, complete with spines, on the
beach at Clover Point, Victoria, BC. It was waveworn and green with
algae, like everything there.

But don't be afraid of dead specimens. Often this is all that is
available. I dredge the canyons to about 600m, resulting mainly in
micros, and 99.9999% of everything is dead. despite some of these
shells having been lying around on the seafloor for up to a million
years in some cases (Pleistocene relicts), they are often in
excellent condition. Remember, a perfect fossil may be hundreds of
millions of years old... shells are DURABLE.

As for buying shells, this is one of only two ways most folk have to
collect outside their area. The other is to exchange. I do both,
though my exchange mode is at present seriously overcommitted.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
64 (3) 473-8863
<[log in to unmask]>
Fossil preparator
Seashell, Macintosh & VW/Toyota van nut
I want your sinistral gastropods!
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Q: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
A: Why is top posting frowned upon?