COLLECTING
SHELLS
Organizing a Shell Collection
by Dr. Gary Rosenberg
As a shell collection grows, by self-collecting, trade or purchase,
it can become impossible to display all the shells. One solution
is to house the collection in cabinets with shallow drawers.
Each lot is placed in a cardboard tray or plastic box with its
label. A lot consists of all the specimens of one species collected
in one place at one time. Lots are kept in order by their classification,
often alphabetized by genus and species within a family.
People with large collections
often number their lots, and keep a hand-written catalogue recording
the information associated with them, to safeguard against misplacement
of specimens and labels. Catalogue numbers are assigned in consecutive
order (although they need not start from one). The number should
be written in india or other indelible ink on the labels and
the shells. Collectors reluctant to write on their shells should
record the measurements of the specimens, especially if they
have more than one example of a species. Specimens too small
to be written on can be put in cotton-plugged vials or plastic
boxes, along with the catalogue number on a slip of paper.
Today, shell collections can
be easily computerized with a home computer and a data base
program. Computerization serves two functions. First, it allows
information to be sorted in various ways, so that, for example,
labels can be printed and lists of species from particular families
or parts of the world can be generated. Second, it ensures that
all the information about a specimen is recorded, by giving
a more detailed list of items to be recorded than is possible
in a hand-written catalogue. This enhances the value of the
collection, particularly if the collector is planning eventually
to donate it to a museum. (A computerized collection is also
much easier to appraise.)
About two dozen fields of information
are sufficient for the needs of most collectors. All the fields
pertaining to a particular lot are called a record. Examples
of types of information that a collector might want to include
in a record are shown below. The number of characters recommended
for the length of the field is shown in parentheses. Comments
about the contents of some of the fields are provided below.
| Catalogue number
(6) |
101237 |
| Class (14) |
Gastropoda |
| Order (20) |
Caenogastropoda |
| Superfamily (20) |
Tonnoidea |
| Family (20) |
Ranellidae |
| Genus (20) |
Charonia |
| Subgenus (22) |
(Charonia) |
| Species (22) |
tritonis |
| Subspecies (22) |
variegata |
| Author (31) |
Lamarck |
| Year Named (4) |
1816 |
| Parentheses (1) |
y |
| Continent (13) |
North America |
| Ocean (16) |
Western Atlantic |
| Country or Island
Group (25) |
United States |
| Subdivisions of
above (80) |
Florida Keys, Monroe County,
Florida,Gulf of Mexico |
| Specific locality
(80) |
Bay at northeast end of
Vaca Key by Marathon airport |
| Habitat (80) |
Living at 3 meters in
Thalassia bed |
| Station Number
(10) |
CR80-114 |
| Date collected
(11) |
19 SEP 1980 |
| Collector(s) (30) |
Richardson, C. |
| Number of specimens
(4) |
1 |
| Size (30) |
267 x 149 mm |
| Source (30) |
Novel Shell Shop |
| Cost (8) |
$20.00 |
| Date obtained (11) |
15 NOV 1983 |
| Date catalogued
(11) |
07 APR 1991 |
| Remarks (255) |
Collected by SCUBA. With
operculum. |
Catalogue number: Each
lot receives a unique catalogue number, which ties together
the specimens, labels and record.
Classification: The most
often used ranks are listed, and others, such as subfamilies
and suborders can be added as desired. The fields lengths shown
are a couple of characters longer than the longest name of each
rank that I know of: order Systellommatophora; superfamily Architectonicoidea;
family Prochaetodermatidae; genus Nipponocrassatella; species
roseoprodissoconchus (for a venerid in the genus Pitar) and
extracarinacostata (for a omalogyrid snail less than 0.5 mm
long in the genus Ammonicera). A more sophisticated user might
want to store the higher classification in a separate file,
linking the files via the genus field.
Author and date: If the
subspecies field is used, then author and date refer to the
subspecies name, if not, to the species name. The longest combination
of authors likely to be encountered is Bucquoy, Dautzenberg
& Dollfus. Author and date are sometimes combined as one
field, as they are often cited together, but this can make it
difficult to sort by date. Parentheses can be used around author
and date in a combined field as needed, but this will also make
it hard to sort: Reeve, 1848 and (Reeve, 1848) would alphabetize
differently. A collector who intends to routinely sort the author
field might consider using a yes/no field for parentheses to
avoid this problem. The computer would then be programmed to
print "(Author, Date)" if the field said yes and "Author,
Date" otherwise.
Locality levels: Locality
data are split into several fields to simplify computer searching
and sorting. In addition to the fields listed here, the collector
might want to specify fields for river or county if he anticipates
sorting by that information. Note that the ocean field is left
blank for land and freshwater species, except those on oceanic
islands. Because political boundaries often do not correspond
to natural geographic ones, it can sometimes be difficult to
determine what information is appropriate for a particular locality
field. For example, the Falkland Islands are currently a British
possession, but are part of a different continent. Should United
Kingdom be mentioned when a lot from the Falklands is catalogued?
Similar questions arise with many island groups and territories.
What is important is not whether the answer is yes or no, but
that the answer be the same each time. For example, if you enter
the Ryukyu Islands as a subdivision of Japan one time, don't
enter them as an island group the next time, because you would
then have to remember to search both the subdivision field and
the country/island group field to find all the lots from the
Ryukyus. Consistency is essential for a data base to work optimally.
Station number: If a collector
maintains a field notebook, as discussed above, the station
numbers used therein provide an easy way to generate lists of
species collected at each location.
Size: This field is important
primarily if the collector does not want to write catalogue
numbers on specimens. The measurements of the specimen will
help ensure that it is not accidentally separated from its data.
Measurements are best made with calipers; models with dial and
digital read-outs are available. If there are many specimens
in a lot, their sizes are better recorded in the remarks field,
to prevent the size field from growing too long. Collectors
who exchange shells might use this field to record a range of
sizes available for trade. They might also want a yes/no field
that indicates if a given lot has specimens that they are willing
to trade, and a field that tells the condition of specimens
(Gem, Fine, Good, etc.).
Remarks: This field contains
any information that does not readily fit in the other fields,
such as collecting technique, or a list of previous owners of
a specimen.
The above material
has been adapted from Dr. Rosenberg's The Encyclopedia of Seashells,
published by Robert Halt, Ltd., London, 1992. Dr. Rosenberg
is Associate Curator of
Malacology at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
