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Conus capitaneous
A comparison of specimens of C. chinensis from Philippines and Fiji are for the time being scientifically meaningless, as
only 2 specimens have been found in Fiji so far. However, it should be mentioned that these two specimens are as broad as
Philippines ones, are also calloused at the margins, denticulate on the fossula, have a curved posterior aperture, and the
marginal spots are deep violet. They agree with Cate's illustration of Hypotype No. 3 in The Veliger. I agree with Crawford
Cate that C. chinensis, sensu stricto can be easily separated from specimens of C. chinensis from Philippines (and at the
same time from specimens from Fiji, Australia and Mauritius on account of its rather elongated form, narrower width,
straighter aperture and consistently more numerous teeth. At the same time, however, specimens of violacea, variolaria,
sydneyensis and amiges show in actual fact so little difference and are so variable within each subspecies, that they could
be consolidated into one subspecies.
To sum up: The variation of C. chinensis known as amiges should never have been resurrected, because it does not have
sufficient and constant characteristics of its own to warrant separation. Specimens of amiges if unmarked and without
locality data attached, could not be separated from the (2) known Fiji specimens, nor from certain specimens from Mauritius.
It is interesting to note that certain species of Cypraea from the islands in the central Indian ocean bear a closer
resemblance to the same species from Melanesia and Polynesia, than they do to the same species in the Philippines and
Australia.
Synopsis: In the preceding two installments, I told of the first recorded microscopic examination made of the stomach of the
animal of Cypraea aurantium, by Dr. Alison Kay, General Science Dept., University of Philippines, how the shell had been
collected on order by F. E. Lahora off the Southern Philippines, and I attempted to establish the western and eastern limits
of the range of this species.
It might be well to state at this point that the information I am using was obtained in personal letters from collectors in
areas in question, in personal interviews, and from well-authenticated stories that appeared in the Philippines Shell News
during the last six or seven years.
In attempting to establish the northern and southern limits of the range of this shell, many inconsistencies develop which
have yet to be satisfactorily explained. Future researchers will probably settle this, but I believed that the ocean currents
and the physical contour of the ocean bottom may be the answer, as will be shown later. One fact, however, has been pretty
definitely established. It is that no Golden Cowries have ever been collected more than 13 degrees north or south of the
equator. It is believed that the temperature of the water is the controlling factor. If you are skeptical about this
statement, take a map of the Pacific Ocean and stick pins in all the localities where the Golden Cowry have been found and
the pattern will soon develop. There will be no pins either north or south of a strip centered on the equator and about 25
degrees wide.
But returning to the inconsistencies mentioned above, let's look at a few examples.
Why is C. aurantium not found in New Caledonia yet is collected in the Loyalty Islands less than 50 miles away? Why are they
not found in the New Hebrides even though these Islands lie almost on a line between Fiji and the Solomons, both of which are
known to produce them? Why are they not found in the Line Islands of Jarvis, Palmyra et al, which practically straddle the
equator? The temperature could hardly be a factor concerning them. These apparent exceptions will be discussed in detail
hereafter but I'll tell you now it is only one man's opinion and he's not a scientist!
Figured above is the holotype of Gisortia
gisortiana pterophora Schilder, 1927,
from the Middle Eocene of northern France;
length 260 mm. (over 10 inches).
The largest living cowry is Macrocypraea cervus LINNAEUS from Florida, which according to PRESBREY (1913) grows up to 7
inches (i.e. 178 mm.); however, the largest specimen measured by the writer in forty years investigations is "only" 157 mm.
long (British Museum). The second rank is occupied by Cypraea tigris LINNAEUS, the Philippines race of which, named
schilderiana CATE, attains in deep water 147 mm. (KAY 1961). The third rank must be attributed to Chelycypraea testudinaria
LINNAEUS: the largest specimen of its western race ingens SCHILDER & SCHILDER, preserved in coll. DAUTZENBERG, is not 142 mm.
long (as indicated by SCHILDER 1929), but only 140 mm. (SCHILDER & SCHILDER 1952). It may be observed, that these three giant
species among living Cypraeidae belong to the subfamily Cypraeinae, while the largest Nariinae and Cypraeovulinae are
distinctly smaller.
Some fossil cowries, however, attained even larger dimensions, in fact more than double the length of the largest living
species named above! There is a subfamily Gisortiinae which tends to gigantism, as well as to a reduction in the
denticulation of the lips. They descended from the subfamily Cypraeorbinae which flourished from Cretaceous times to Eocene,
and of which very few species have survived as relics to recent times. The Gisortiinae evidently originated in India in the
Paleocene (about 65 million years ago), flourished during the Lower and Middle Eocene near the Eocene equator from West
America to Europe and India and as far as Taiwan. Then suddenly they became extinct, with the few exceptions, which survived
up to the upper Eocene (about 40 million years ago). No species has been detected in Oligocene beds. During these 25 million
years a general increase in size can be observed, in a hyperbolic way, i.e. the enlargement became gradually faster and
faster -- till the size exceeded the natural limits of existence, and the Gisortiinae became extinct. But let us hope that
one day a living relic of this subfamily may be found in deep water, which has yielded, in these last decennaries, so many
surprising discoveries.
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