Issue
17
Page
3
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We arrived at the Dorothea Bate (Demonstration) Room to find that it was already arranged informally for the day. Rupert Honnor and Celia Pain had brought British carpet shells, Spisula and Lutraria from their collections. Steve Wilkinson took the opportunity to take photographs of them all, including rare ones like Lutraria oblonga and Mactra glauca, for the on-line encyclopaedia. Dr Adrian Rundle showed jewel-like Vertigo s.l. and marine microscopic bivalves. There were lots of other exhibits: Australian bivalves and books, bivalves from Fetlar, Shetland extracted from shell sand, shells and photographs from the Porcupine Burren field meeting and lots of specimens of Arctica islandica, illustrations and history which related to the talk later.
Pryce Buckle our Webmaster gave a demonstration of our new website, he has been improving it and wanted to hear from his customers what they thought. Three laptops were made available and we had a serious play! It was excellent! It had all the things one would expect: about the Society, how to join, field meetings, recording and publications. There is a key to British land snails, it is guaranteed accurate; other on-line keys have miss- identified species!
Dr Paul Butler gave a fascinating talk about Arctica islandica, and how old shells can be used in just the same way as tree rings to build up an archive of the marine environment. One specimen 410 years old has been nicknamed Old Ming, it is the oldest known animal alive. See the News section of the website: http://www.conchsoc.org. Help the Aged have been helping to fund studies into its longevity!
The new style meeting was a great success, twenty-nine people attended. They enjoyed themselves immensely, chatting and getting immersed in shells as the photographs show. Judith Nelson is thanked for providing hot and cold drinks and bringing her rare specimen of Spisula elliptica.
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