Quoting Richard Petit <[log in to unmask]>:

> Joseph:
>
> What problem is it that will never be solved?  It is perhaps
> unfortunate that collectors are "free to do what they want."  However,
> it is not all that bad as many collectors (and shell dealers) have made
> material contributions to malacology and to the molluscan literature.
> It is those who are afflicted with the "I think its new so I want to
> name it" syndrome who are causing the problem.  There are very few
> non-professional malacologists who are familiar enough with the
> existing literature to know, or even have the knowledge to find out,
> what species and or forms have been described even in a group in which
> they "specialize."
>
> Why bring up DNA?  DNA is no more a tool for determining species than
> are many others.  For a time the buzz word was cladistics, another tool
> that was was not an end in and of itself.  The use of DNA is highly
> specialized and, depending on selective factors, can give some very
> strange results.
>
> You state that you know a collector who published a book to name shells
> he found.  Unfortunately that is still going on.  What such people do
> not realize is that the new names they produce will probably, given our
> lax rules for publication, become part of the literature and will have
> to be contended with by serious scientists in the future.  They think
> they are creating monuments to their memory, but in reality future
> malacologists will consider their publications to have come from
> monumental ignorance.
>
> As for "finders keepers," that would depend on the laws.  The last time
> I donated specimens to a musuem I had to fill out a stack of forms
> attesting to the origin of the specimens and whether or not they had
> been legally collected and brought into the country.  Regardless of the
> rules, anyone even thinking seriously about the subject will understand
> the need for type material to be available for study.
>
> Your "3 cents worth" has bought you a response of about the same value
> ....
>
> Good collecting!
>
> dick p.



That couldn't have been worded better, Dick!

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