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Frogshell
Recently, Mrs. Kathleen Mateott of Dromana (Victoria) sent me for examination an albinistic cowrie. It was trawled by a
prawner from Mooloolaba, in about 100 fathoms in the same area. The empty shell (the anterior extremity of which has been
injured, but healed during the animal's life) is 31.4 mm long, breadth 54%, with 26 labial and 21 columellar teeth and 9
denticles on the inner margin of the rather broad though shallow fossula. The right margin is regularly pitted. The shell is
subpellucid, white, unspotted, but shows traces of at least five pale fulvous lateral dots on each margin (which are too pale
to be visible on the photograph). The oblong shell recalls a smooth Staphylaea limacina, but the unquestionable presence of
fulvous lateral spots excludes such a determination. Therefore, I think this unique shell to be a deep water albino of
Erosaria tomlini though its teeth are more numerous than in usual tomlini collected on the shores. This determination,
however, needs confirmation by examination of further specimens which I hope will be discovered by future trawling: but I do
not think that Mrs. Matcott's shell may belong to a species new to science. A dilated albinistic tomlini from Tonga has been
figured by Cernohorsky in H.S.N. 1966, no. 82, p. 3).
The underwater area well off Kahi Point is a good spot for Cypraea tigris. A skin diver can have a good day in this area. I
have collected Conus retifer there also. Figs. 1 & 2:
Strombus mutabilis
Swainson, 1821
(fossil) taken by C. Weaver
at 20 ft. elevation, Kaena
Point, Oahu. Length 30 mm.
Photos - Weaver -- Actual size
Figs. 3 & 4:
Strombus ostergaardi
Pilsbry, 1921
(fossil) taken by C. Weaver
at 15 ft. elevation, Nanakuli
Sea Cliffs, Oahu.
Length 21 mm.
[Unfortunately, my copy of this issue
is a Xerox copy, made when text
clarity was about all that one could
hope for! makuabob]
These are the only fossil areas that I have worked. However, Cliff Weaver, Pat Burgess, and many other HMS members have
collected many fine shells, either universally extinct or extinct in Philippines, at other locations. Traveling on around the
island of Oahu these fossil beds may be found at:
1. The Waianae quarry, where the two specimens of Ostrea kamehameha were found. This is located about three quarters of a
mile east of the former location of the Waianae railway station.
2. At Kaena Point, Cliff Weaver has collected Strombus mutabilis and Reg Gage collected several species of Lambis. Other
species such as Conus tulipa, Patella melanostoma, and Septifer kraussii have also been collected there.
For those of you who have access to the Kaneohe Marine Corps air station on Mokapu Peninsula there is some fine fossil
collecting available on the peninsula side of Nuupia fish pond and along the coral plain making up the western part of the
peninsula. Sixteen species, including Cassis vibex and Strombus ostergaardi, have been collected in this area.
Professor Jens Ostergaard reported in a Bishop Museum paper on the fossils of Molokai and Maui. According to Professor
Ostergaard, fossils on Molokai exist only in an area of marine rock exposed by stream beds (Kalamaula Stream and its
tributaries) about one and a half miles west of Kaunakakai close to the area known in 1939, as Coconut Grove. On the Island
of Maui, Professor Ostergaard reported fossils found only at an area known as Target Range Gulch about six miles southeast of
Lahaina, again in areas eroded by stream action.
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Frogshell triton green abalone shell leis puka necklace shell bracelet hearshell natural fashion jewelry decorative components shark tooth nassa black pen heishe white clam murex zamboi violet oyster murex zamboi strombus mariabelles.
frogshell
Shell
Bracelets
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