THE BOOK OF SHELLS: A LIFE-SIZE GUIDE TO IDENTIFYING AND CLASSIFYING SIX HUNDRED SEASHELLS — BY M.G. Harasewych & Fabio Moretzsohn

"This encyclopedia of 600 seashells . . . is enough to inspire even the laziest beachcomber to rush out at low tide to find something beautiful."

— Washington Post

Who among us hasn’t marveled at the diversity and beauty of shells? Or picked one up, held it to our ear, and then gazed in wonder at its shape and hue?

Many a lifelong shell collector has cut teeth (and toes) on beaches across the United States and even the world. Some have even dived to the depths of the ocean. But most of us are not familiar with the biological origin of shells, their role in explaining evolutionary history, and the incredible variety of forms in which they come.

Shells are the external skeletons of mollusks, an ancient and diverse division of invertebrates that are in the earliest fossil record of multicellular life over 500 million years ago. There are over 100,000 kinds of recorded mollusks, and some estimate that there are over a million more that have yet to be discovered.

Some breathe air, others live in fresh water, but most live in the ocean. They range in size from a grain of sand to a beach ball, and in weight from a few grams to several hundred pounds.

The Book of Shells offers a visually stunning celebration of and scientifically engaging guide to 600 of the most intriguing mollusk shells, each chosen to convey the range of shapes and sizes that occur across a range of species.

Authored by a pair of subject specialists with an emphasis on larger and more familiar species, The Book of Shells provides an excellent introduction to the major classes of sea-living mollusks worldwide.

Each shell is photographed at its actual size, in full color, and is accompanied by an explanation of the shell’s size range, distribution, abundance, depth, habitat, feeding pattern and operculum—the piece that protects the mollusk when it’s in the shell. To capture detail, tiny shells were photographed using a scanning electron microscope.

The Book of Shells has 2,400 illustrations that comprise nineteenth-century engravings as well as photographs..

Students and the lay enthusiasts will find the 600 entries accessible and engaging. Representing a small portion of the known species of mollusks, the shells depicted here are generally the most familiar, although a few rare and newly discovered forms are included, as well.

A table lists the family, shell-size range, distribution, abundance, depth, habitat, feeding habit, and the presence or absence of an operculum.

The Book of Shells also provides readers with a in-color range map, genus and species and common name, a paragraph-long description of the species, a listing of related species, a color life-size illustration, and, for small shells, a larger, more detailed image.

A taxonomic organization defines the five sections: chitons, bivalves, scaphopods, gastropods, and cephalopods. Species are arranged by physical size, from smallest to largest, within each family.

The Book of Shells also provides supplementary materials that include essays on shell characteristics, shell collecting and a basic guide to identifying seashells. Appendixes include a glossary, the evolutionary classification of the Mollusca, an index of species by common name, and an index of species by scientific name.

THE DETAILS

FORMAT:  New, Hardcover

PUBLISHED: June 30, 2010

PUBLISHER: University of Chicago Press

ISBN: 9780226315775

PAGES: 656 pages, with 2,400 illustrations - including full-color photographs and 19th century engravings

DIMENSIONS: 10 inches H x 7.5 inches W x 1.9 inches T

RATING: ★★★★1/2

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

M. G. Harasewych is a research zoologist and retired as curator of marine mollusks at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., which houses one of the world’s largest mollusk collections. He now is Emeritus Curator of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and a Professor Emeritus at The Smithsonian Institution. He has discovered and described dozens of new genera and species, written widely for scientific journals and periodicals, and is the author of Shells: Jewels from the Sea.

Fabio Moretzsohn (1964–2020) was visiting assistant professor in the Department of Life Sciences, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. He was coauthor of Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells.