Sarah,
 
Well, you and Mark seem to have hit it off real well.  Remember, when the
both of you are able to look for seashells passing by in the big, 1,000
foot wave I'll be sitting at 5,400 feet wondering why I am not getting
Peter Jennings live from New York.  Maybe New Mexico will once again have
an inland sea like the big one during the Permian.  But, because I take
the short view, I don't think I'll cancel my trip to the coast next
month.
 
Speaking of shells, and we were weren't we, I just got my notice from
Bret Raines on the shells I successfully bid on during his last auction.
 He also apologized for some minor glitches in his program during this
latest auction.  Well glitches happen, in the meantime I believe his
auction is a wonderful use of the net.  There is a nice variety of
species and prices and half of the enjoyment for me is looking at some
really nice images of shells I may never have seen before.
 
In fact I just purchased a Scaphander lignarius (Linnaeus, 1758).  This
is a first in this family for me and I don't know anything about them.
My references (Eisenberg) state they are carnivorous, feeding on
scaphopods using gizzard plates.  I assume these gizzard plates grind
together to bust up the prey - is this correct?  The shell I purchased
comes with three plates.  Are all three gizzard plates? How are they
arranged in the living animal?  There is no reference to an operculum so
I assume (again) that all three are the grinding gizzard plates.  I
realize these are not really uncommon shells, so if anyone knows a good
reference that covers some of the aspects about the life history of this
shell, please let me know.
 
The more I learn about mollusks, the more incredible they are and the
more I realize I just don't know much about this huge group of animals.
We tend (in this hobby) to center on the shell, but there are some
incredible aspects to the natural history of these guys.  In this vein, I
applaud Hawaiian Shells News for their continued work to first of all
just keep a magazine going on the web and secondly for publishing many
in-depth articles on an individual species with photographs of the living
animal.  Similarly, the pages of the Jacksonville Shell Club, Guido
Poppe, Eddie Hardy, and George Sangiouloglou all have a variety of images
- some of which portray the living animal.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a
shell guy and I want to see a picture of the shell, but an additional
picture of the living animal is often fascinating.
 
Tom Eichhorst
 
P.S.  Carlos, if you are reading this, I promise to get that list to you
soon, really!  Trust me.