>Date:    Mon, 18 May 1998 11:06:09 +0100
>From:    DOMINIC RAWLINGSON PLANT <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: CONE IDENTIFICATION
>
>Two years ago I found a nice cone, ht: 51mm, off the Florida Keys which I
>identified as Conus bartschi - though I have also been told it is Conus
>regius.
>In Walls "Cone Shells" it looks like the picture at the bottom of page 580
>(C. regius) and not like the picture on page 148 (C. bartschi).
>On the other hand in Abbott/Dance "Compendium of Seashells" my shell is
>very similar to the photo of C. bartschi shown on the bottom of page 272
>while it does not have the high sloping spire of the C. regius illustrated
>in the picture at the bottom of page 267.
>Can any "Cone" expert give me me a definitive way of telling the two apart?
>====================
>Dominic Rawlingson Plant
>[log in to unmask]
>=====================
>
 
Hi Dominic,
 
I also found a nice Conus regius off the Florida Keys.  Mine was a young
one, about 38 mm, and it is one of my favorite shells. Especially since I
have picked about a 5 mm thich "hat" of limy encrustation off its spire!
 
Bobbi's information is perhaps the best way of telling the two cones apart,
but it won't help much if you are not sure where the cone specimen was
found.  One thing you should know about these cones (since you are asking):
 they are probably all descended from a common ancestor. Add to those two
names you have, Conus bartschi and C.regius, the names C. cedonulli, C.
trinitarius, C. aurantius, C. julieandreae, C. sanctaemarthae, C.
trinitarius, C. panamicus, C. mappa, probably C. harlandi, maybe C. archon,
and a bunch of others. What you get when you pile them all in a pot is a
C.cedonulli complex stew. There are specific differences among these taxa;
any cone specialist can go on for a long time about them, and big arguments
can develop. What I do know about the group is that the Isthmus of Panama
split the ancestral species (singlar) or species (plural): West Coast
species from East Coast species.  How many species had already evolved at
that time, I don't know. But tracing them from place to place is fascinating.
 
(Gary R., all those C.'s are for you.)
 
Lynn Scheu