A hearty welcome to Wolfgang Fischer!
 
Conch-L is full of shell offers and requests, questions and answers,
reminiscences and reports on shelling, methods, and conchologists. Conch-L
also has occasional runs of humor, philosophy, controversy, and horribly
dull answers to narrow taxonomic questions--the last being my own
specialty. We have discovered from experience that it is possible to please
all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time,
but not all of the people all of the time. Keep the "delete" button ready.
 
I hope that you are not shy about asking questions or answering them. We
have all ages of conchologists here, including children. I, for one, look
forward to hearing from a new Conchler with a Viennese sense of humor. (I
don't suppose that Count Bobbie collected shells?) And here is a question
for you:
 
How did an inland place like the Vienna Basin develop endemic species of
shells?
 
Yours truly,
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama