Thank you very much Mr. Thomas, Thank you for teach me much information on "subfossil cowrie". I have bought two "subfossil erosa" from Don Pisor when I visited to San Diego. They are light-bright yellow and feel very very fresh. The shells have some features of see-through texure. It is hard believe that they are in dead state. I have many dead cowries such as kuroharaii, langfordi from Japan. They are all fade color and drilled by worms, of course without any glossy surface. I think when a cowrie becames a subfossil one, it will take long time in the bottom of the sea. But I wonder why these "subfossil cowries" have excellent glossy surface and without any worm holes. Most of they have beautiful colorations. Can you tell me why? I am very interested in the processes of a living cowrie becomes a "subfossil cowrie". Thank you very much in advanced. - Jiongtao http://www.soft.ics.keio.ac.jp/~huang/cgi-bin/seashells.cgi ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com