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Shells components
The year 1758 marked the beginning of a whole new era of systematic enlightenment. Linnaeus introduced for the first time an
orderly arrangement for the animal kingdom, among them the mollusca in general and the Cypraea in particular. He enunciated
the first acceptable principles for defining species and genera, and this, with his suggestion for a simple binomial
nomenclature, resulted in the first systematic arrangement to enable workers to sort their material in a logical manner.
Linnaeus' famous work, Systema Naturę (10th edition) first fixed the taxonomy of the Cypraeidae in a way that made sense; the
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature uses this work as the starting point for name priority in all animal
groups.
With this starting point in mind, subsequent work on the Cypraea can be traced through the literature in fairly definite
stages: the first stage is evidently the study of local populations; the second, the acceptance of possible environmental
influences, and the third would be the study of species and races in a broader sense. These are the essential stages to be
considered in the study of any shell family group.
After Linnaeus, many other naturalists contributed their work to subsequent volumes. Gmelin 1789-1791 is the author of the
13th Edition of Linnaeus' earlier work; he revised it by adding many new species and enlarging the bibliographic references.
Gmelin mentioned a total of 114 species of Cypraea.
Some relief from the depressing atmosphere came when, taking advantage of the delay, Stephen came across a cowrie walking up
the jetty pile. He brought it to me for identification at the rest house where we were drowning our sorrows. It was Cypraea
lamarcki. I had never found one before, but I knew that they were present on the West Coast. A few months earlier I had given
Alan Kohn and Joe Rosewater the map references where they had been reported off Penang. They had had no luck, and it was my
intention to make a trip there to see if I could find one. Now, here they were. Without waiting to put on swim trunks I was
down into the water, shirt, trousers, and all. I found some round the bottom of the piles, eight lamarcki and a lovely C.
onyx. The crew's entreaties for us to get under way prevented a more thorough search, so this was put off until our return.
An hour and a half later, in slightly better spirits we anchored in "Strombus Bay." We had previously given this name to a
lovely little cove in which there were thousand of Strombus luhuanus, a species without the black edge to the aperture. We
knew that there were also Chitton [?],Vassum, some achatinus cones and a few other items which we planned to take for several
collections and which we hoped to distribute to the Museums of Malaya. A little shelling in the evening revealed nothing new.
Apparently, it was going to be a five day camping holiday instead of a shelling expedition.
Low tide the next day was at about 10 o'clock and down it went, down, down, until it seemed that somebody had pulled the plug
out of the bottom of the ocean and laid out before us were acres and acres of wonderful coral making close investigation
easy. A much larger snorkeling territory was brought within our reach than would have been the case during high tide.
Aqualunging was still more or less out of the question as visibility below 15 feet was difficult. But there before us were
hours of work . . . Soon the specimens began to come to light, Conus achatinus, textile, Cypraea arabica, and other specimens
were found in habitats we had neglected before. Staghorn coral was found to be the hiding place of many shells so this lovely
coral took quite a beating, I am afraid. Being an old coral man from way back it always hurts me to spoil such lovely
formations.
After our first morning at the coral area, I had learned a lot more about shell habitats although the specimens I had brought
up were not particularly exciting. Meeting Jack on the way up the beach after the morning's labors, I knew from his remarks
that he had come up with something good. His remark, "You are going to split when you see what I have in my bag," was a sure
indication that he had found a good specimen. It was a beautiful large Conus striatus which Jack had never collected before.
He had already uncovered several Conus achatinus and textile, and a fine Cypraea caurica in this area. Night shelling on the
rocks was fun, too, as it was incredible to see so many different species feeding alongside each other, and the Chitton [?]
were all out from their crevices making it very easy to collect these strange creatures. Night snorkeling was not too good
because the water was still some what cloudy.
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