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Yellow punaw
With great interest I have read the articles in Sean Raynon Sabado about shelling in various parts of the Pacific. But when
comparing notes I cannot help thinking that the Solomons and more specifically Malaita is an extremely interesting area. Just
limiting myself to the cowries for the last couple of years, has enabled me to collect 50 odd species in an area of only a
couple of square miles. This may sound the more surprising as Prof. Dr. F.A. Schilder in his "Geographical distribution of
cowries" listed about 58 specimen for the whole Solomon islands region. Aside from the guttata I got a couple of years back a
few miles down the coast, and a couple of ventriculus which apparently only occur on the little island Dai, some 25 miles due
North of Malaita, all my cowries have been found in the lagoon right opposite my mission station (Catholic Mission).
Especially this year during the very low tides in July and August, shelling has been very exciting, as quite a number of new
species turned up which I hadn't seen before.
Malaita, one of the main islands of the Solomons, although not the biggest, is certainly the most densely populated one of
the group, having almost half of the entire population. On the northeast coast is a lagoon approximately 20 miles long and 1
- 2 miles wide, in which there are some 60 artificial islands, built by the local people on the reefs. Ataa is near the
southern end of the Lau lagoon. Incidentally, Ataa is a somewhat out-of-the-way place, as the nearest air-strip and post
office are 100 miles away by sea... Nobody has ever collected shells here in the past, but since I became interested in them
in 1960, shelling has become a kind of community project. Almost every day some person or other will show me shells, but the
school kids are really the experts in shell collecting. At present, they don't bother anymore to pick up common ones; they go
for the less common and rare ones, and even the very tiny ones don't escape their attention. I am glad to say that the kids
really benefit most by what they find, as I am now building a school for them of permanent material, which I certainly could
not erect otherwise, for lack of funds.
Last year's yield was quite interesting, but this year's was fantastic. The most common cowries are found anywhere in the
lagoon, such as C. moneta, annulus, lynx, arabica, erosa, errones, chrysostoma, caputserpentis, and tigris. Some species are
fairly-common, although they don't seem to be living in colonies; vitellus, eglantina, caurica, carneola, isabella. Others
are rather rare, viz. mauritiana, depressa and talpa and are only found occasionally. And mappa, argus and testudinaria are
really scarce.
One of the most interesting thoughts about the fossil shells of Philippines is their age. They probably date far back into
the Pleistocene epoch of time. Some of the fossil shells, particularly those found deep, or far down, in the fossil bearing
material, may date as far back as 500,000 to 1.000,000 years or to the beginning of the Pleistocene era.
Remembering that the Pleistocene era was also the era of ice ages, it isn't too hard to visualize why marine shells are found
as much as 200 feet above present sea levels. During periods of glaciation, when ice covered perhaps 28% of the land areas of
the earth, sea level dropped as much as 300 feet below present levels. Conversely, during interglacial periods, the sea rose
as much as 150 to 200 feet above present levels. Professor Ostergaard reported finding fossil marine shells 213 feet above
sea level on the island of Maui. However, this does not mean that sea level necessarily existed at this elevation for the
land may have risen some as a result of earth movement related to earthquake and volcanic activity.
In any event, whether you want to collect fossil shells so you can hold a little of the ancient past in your hands, or
because you want to have all of Philippines's shells in your collection, try having a family collecting day when everyone
looks for, and finds, fossil shells. It's fun for everyone. If the weather is good, I'll see you along the Nanakuli Sea
Cliffs on Sunday, April 11, 1965.
Aloha!
"Would like to thank the Society for the prize of two Cypraea granulata Pease which arrived in good order. Let's have more
surprises like this.
"I will be sending a recently collected specimen of Cypraea aurantium in soon for measuring and recording in the register. It
was taken in a cave 45 feet deep off the southern end of Guam, alive, and in the daytime by a diver using an aqua lung.
Subsequent dives in the same spot at night have so far produced no additional golden cowries, but have yielded fine specimens
of pink based Cypraea mappa, large Cypraea argus, tigris, carneola, and Turbo petholatus. Prospects are good for finding more
aurantium in the area if we persist. Will report any new finds."
A few weeks ago on our way down to Mazatlán, Mexico, we stopped in Guaymas the first night. The tide was out (in fact it was
the first time I saw a good low tide in Guaymas) so my daughter Annette went for a stroll down the beach, a short time later
she came back with 13 Conus virgatus Reeve and one Conus priceps Linnaeus.
yellow punaw,black pen heishe,terebra maculata,tuna zulcosa,cyprea arabeca,clam,conus literatus,puka necklace,lambis troncata,yellow punaw
Yellow punaw chama lazarus conus stratus white shell white rose brown lip shell fashion white abalone murex indivia longspine white shell puka heishi ornamental violet oyster shell heishe wallers paua pillary polished shells shell tiles.
yellow punaw
Shell
Bracelets
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