About the shells in this image gallery….
The shells featured in this image gallery are from my husband’s and my personal collections. They were collected from the beaches of Kanyakumari, Trivandrum and Chennai. The large ones were bought from hawkers on the beach. Some of these shells are rather old, collected during our childhood and hence may be faded. The varieties which were once available for picking on these beaches, are nearly non-existent now. In fact knowledge and study about oceans hardly feature in our school curriculum except rather cursorily. It is hoped that these shells might inspire a few to become interested in the biodiversity of oceans.
Visit http://www.nansaidh.us/operc/index1.html to see different kinds of operculum of snails.
The details given are elementary and is a just a beginning. Hope to update slowly but steadily in the months to come. Published works from BNHS, Madras Museum, Fauna of British India and ZSI have been used for identifying these shells. All efforts have been made to be accurate, but should you find serious errors, please do let me know.
Taxonomy is a very fluid field and classification is constantly being modified. Attempt has been made to keep it up-to date and this is a continuous process. The classification given for Bivalvia may be a bit traditional and not modern; since old names are also conserved this should not cause too much of a problem.
Feedback would be useful and is welcomed. Images to teachers or for educational purposes are available on request. Contact me and I would be happy to send them. However use of these image for commercial purposes is strongly discouraged.
Images of these shells with animals alive inside them can be view at :http://www.poppe-images.com/
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