>The Pecten shell became a symbol not only for the Santiago de Compostela
>pilgrimages but also for the crusades to the Holy Land.  For the latter, it
>is quite clear that we are dealing with Pecten jacobaeus (treated
>frequently as a subspecies of Pecten maximus), because Pecten Maximus does
>not occur in the Eastern Mediterranean.  But regarding the former, it seems
>that smart and eager souvenir vendors in Santiago de Compostela actually
>imported pectens from other European countries farther north.  Since
>Santiago itself as well as all 'European countries farther north' are on
>the Atlantic coast rather than the Mediterranean, the most likely candidate
>to be the Santiago pilgrimage symbol is Pecten maximus, because Pecten
>jacobaeus does not occur in the Atlantic.  Because pilgrimages and crusades
>are so closely related, and also because the two species are so closely
>related, all of this usually gets mixed up into one single shell that is
>the symbol of all holy voyages and also the Shell Oil Company (and, by the
>way, also as the origin of so many pecten images in British heraldry), but
>we are probably really dealing with two species that both became symbols of
>various kinds in Medieval art and history.
>
>Monika
>
>
 
I thought the Shell Oil logo was based on the citrinus form of Lindapecten
muscosus.
 
*  G Thomas Watters               *
*  Ohio Biological Survey &       *
*  Aquatic Ecology Laboratory     *
*  Ohio State University          *
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