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Clam
The matter of working with the mollusca takes a great deal of teamwork to get the job done. This teamwork can, perhaps, be
divided into three categories: one, the field worker who collects the material, whether through diving, dredging, shore
collecting or other methods; two, the plodder who works in the literature, digging out the answers to synonymy and priority
and identification; and three, the trained scientist who is able, through his background and education, to make use of the
help of the other two kinds of workers and combine their work into a meaningful whole.
No matter what your own favorite category may be, the literature is the necessary recorded story of the family. The fact that
it may be somewhat tangled at the moment only adds to the challenge and interest for the worker in that category; the
literature is the tool by which the Cypraea, for example, may be known. Because of this I'd like to mention a few examples
that have been especially helpful to me and to others working with this group.
The early records of Cypraeidae extend back beyond the 17th century, but I shall use Nicolai Gaultieri's Index Testarum
Conchyliorum of 1742 as my starting point. He called the cowries Porcellana, and employed a polynomial system for his species
designations which amounted to practically a whole sentence for each name. I would guess that Gualtieri was our first Lumper
-- he figured an outlandish number of varieties for each species, but for the most part his figures are recognizable today,
and he featured some forty species on four plates.
The next major work signaled the end of an epoch not only for Cypraea, but for conchology in general. In 1757, d'Argenville
produced an important work with more accurately drawn woodcut engravings, adding in many instances also the drawings of the
anatomy of the animal, as well as including some fossil species. Unfortunately for us, d'Argenville limited his coverage of
Cypraea to only one plate of illustrations.
The Mozambique area of the South-East African coast, roughly between 14° and 15° 20' South, is one of the best shelling
grounds in the Indian Province. If the recent check lists of this area, compared with those of some old-famous shell
paradises like Mauritius, do not appear overwhelmingly exciting, this is due to the fact that the area was never thoroughly
surveyed. But the present incomplete lists show a great number of rare end uncommon species, such as the long-lost Cymatium
ranzanii, the little-known Discors aeolica, the beautiful Conus bullatus, Conus pulchellus and nimbosus, Cypraea marginalis.
Mitra regina, Murex elongatus, and a host of others which grow to outstanding seize and beauty here, where five big end
several smaller bays spread 500 kilometers of rich shelling beach of varying character at the collector's feet.
...
The oldest inspected shell dumps contain a very small number of species, generally not more than two or three shallow water
bivalves like Anadara and Modiolus, with some Nerita or Patella now and then. But steadily, as the centuries pass, the number
of species in the shell dumps grows. More and more shells from deeper water are found; first more clams and cockles, oysters
and Pecten, then such Gastropods as Murex ramosus, Cypraea tigris and lots of medium-seized Strombus like gibberulus, decorus
and aurisdianae, until the present day number of 120 Gastropods and 70 Pelecypods is reached.
And now let us have a look at some of this year's or last year's shell dumps: Behold, there is the spire of a big Conus
figulinus among the rubble; there a Conus vexillum, and tulipa, smashed to bits. There are the charred remains of a Lambis
elongata, crushed Cypraea onyx adusta, fragments of Murex rota and the broken valves of a big, orange Spondylus. Having seen
the contents of the ancient shell dumps, would you conclude now that Lambis elongata or Conus tulipa are more frequent today
than they were five hundred years ago? Certainly not. Because these shell dumps don't represent a cross section through the
molluscan fauna of their respective time; they merely tell of the growing knowledge of a people who, strange to the sea and
its creatures, came to settle in this coastal region during the course of the great African tribal wanderings. They tell of
the individual preference and taste of the people who gathered these shells, and they tell of the growing population and,
consequently, growing scarcity of shells in the littoral zone.
One of the biggest thrills in shell collecting is finding a new species to add to your collection, especially if it is a
beautiful one.
So it was, the day I found my first live Cypraea gaskoini.
There were five of us in the shelling group that weekend: Joe Kern, Speedy Lopez, Jack Lind, Frankie Gomez and I. Being newly
arrived in Maui, Frankie, our captain guide and diving buddy, was going to show me a new collecting area for Cypraea.
Arriving at the boat launching-site we found that the weather was not exactly ideal. A strong trade wind had sprung up which
was churning the water, thus cutting down underwater visibility to about 15 feet. Frankie assured us that this was normal for
the area and would not interfere with the diving. With some misgivings I helped load the SCUBA equipment aboard and we
launched the boat.
With the motor on full throttle and the wind at our stern we soon reached the Cypraea grounds. I was still skeptical about
the dive. Here we were in a heavily loaded boat with a gale blowing and the water the consistency of weak tea. Worst of all,
I was cold. At any rate on the bottom it could be no worse than on top. With this thought in mind, I gathered my shelling
gear together and started to drop over the side. At this point Frankie called out to me that I would not need my coral
breaking-bar which normally is part of my shelling equipment. This struck me as odd, but I dropped the bar back in the boat
figuring that Frankie must have meant that the coral was loose on the bottom and could be turned over by hand.
How wrong I was! The bottom was all sand with an occasional underwater coral island cropping up out of the sand. "Oh, well,"
thought I, "there are other shells than Cypraea to look for." So I turned to work the sand for shell trails.
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