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Ethnic shell
The next two days were spent reveling in the lowness of the tides, and the areas uncovered went further and further out to
sea. Our bag increased as the previous days went by. Every now and then a shout would go up from one of us as something new
came up. On the last day, Jack and Alan took off in a small sampan on which we had tied a crazy looking transom to attach the
"Seagull" engine to. Off they went to conquer new territory.
Stephen and I stayed in "Strombus Bay" and as the tide went out further and further so did we. In one great field of staghorn
coral I found some beautiful Turbo petholatus, and so many astraea with lovely rose colored apertures and operculums [sic]
that they looked like raspberries. We collected them in great numbers. Also, in this area we found many Cypraea arabica, of
which one adult only measured 1-1/4 inches in length. In our enthusiasm, we had not noticed the increased shallowness of the
water. It was impossible to walk so we had to crawl over coral, literally breaking our way through to clear water. Our knees
and elbows bore evidence of its sharpness. On the way back, I uncovered to my joy a fine large Conus omaria, and a lovely
Conus terebra. It was a tired and happy Johnnie Johnson who finally staggered up the beach with aching limbs.
As evening came on, Jack and Stephen, although tired, had to go in for one last look while I started to prepare a supper,
which we were doomed not to have. At about six o'clock a mighty storm came up similar to one we had on our last trip. Nature
seemed reluctant to let us get away with her treasures lightly, so for the next five hours we huddled under our somewhat
inadequate cover while the rain came down with unabated ferocity. As the evening without supper passed into night, the
strenuous shelling efforts aided us to sleep. Next morning we broke camp and boarded the boat for the trip back to the
mainland.
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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