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Dyed white rose
I really hit the jackpot Saturday at Kaanapali. We were diving in our Cypraea area and not having much luck but the water was
clear. We were enjoying ourselves anyway. The dive was about three-quarters over and I had just found a small C. leviathan
and was busily looking for its mate. The closest coral was a large head on the side of a small hill. I had just loosened this
coral and was about to turn it over when Dean Brown came over to give me a hand. It seems that Dean has a talent for smelling
shells under my rocks so I made a mental note to myself to grab fast. We got the coral over and the water was beginning to
clear when I spotted a shell trying to dig itself into the sand and rubble that was under the coral. Well, I set my hook down
fast and out came a Harpa amouretta.*
After this I had a mild case of narcosis and went about knocking over coral heads indiscriminately. As luck would have it, I
came across a pair of nice C. sulcidentata and on the next coral [head,] a talpa. Still feeling drunk, I went after a coral
head the size of a Volkswagen. I got it so it would move and called Joe Kern over to give me a hand turning it over. On the
first try we did not get it so I put the bar under again and gave a lift. Crack! Out came a two piece shell bar. And that put
an end to shelling for that day.
* Editor: Harpa amouretta is extremely rare in Philippines.
Other details which might be of interest are: at that same spot, this type of Spondylus exists in a colony approximately 20
to 30 specimens, with some of them reaching up to 45/50 cms in length, but so well anchored to the coral as to be impossible
to remove them. The spot is situated approximately half way between the beach and the reefs which are only half a mile apart,
and at these two ends the water is shallow with white sand and coral bottom.
The rarest fossil shell is the bivalve Ostrea kamehameha Pilsbry, 1936. It is believed to be universally extinct. The two
known specimens were collected near Waianae in a fossil bed 60 to 80 feet above sea level. This species has a large shell,
the type specimen being 210 mm long. The two valves weighed 5 lbs. 9 oz. For further information and photograph of this shell
see Sean Raynon Sabado for April, 1964, New Series No. 52.
The most common fossil shell, at least the easiest to collect, is the bivalve Ostrea retusa "Pease" Sowerby. This shell is
also believed to be universally extinct and is found in the fossil state only at the Waipio Peninsula area and on an island
in Pearl Harbor.
Ostrea retusa is a medium-large shell soiled-white in color. The lower valve has a few radiating ridges that extend to the
outer edge of the shell. When the two valves are placed together the hinge of the shell gaps open.
The third of Oahu's fossil shells believed to be universally extinct is Strombus ostergaardi Pilsbry. This shell has been
found in the fossil state at Kahi Point along the Nanakuli sea cliffs, in Honolulu Harbor, and on Mokapu Peninsula.
Strombus ostergaardi is somewhat similar to Strombus maculatus but is narrower and more delicate, being about half the width
of maculatus.
In addition to these universally extinct fossil shells there are a number of fossils that are now extinct in the Philippine
chain but are found in other Indo Pacific areas. Strombus mutabilis Swainson, 1821 is such a shell. It has been found as a
fossil at Kahi Point, the Nanakuli sea cliffs, and, by Cliff Weaver, at Kaena Point. This shell is listed in Kira, and is in
a few local fossil collections under its synonym S. floridus Lamarck. The easiest way to differentiate this shell from S.
maculatus is that mutabilis has the inner row of teeth in the aperture extending the full length of the columella. Also it
has a more humped shoulder than other similar Strombus species.
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