To the FWGNA group,
Some of you may remember a cute little booklet published by the
American Malacological Union (now the American Malacological Society)
entitled "How to Study and Collect Shells." It was born as a 1941
annual report of the AMU, and by its fourth edition of 1974 had grown
to 107 pages with two (!) illustrations. The original chapter on
freshwater snails was composed by Frank Collins Baker.
In 1999 the AMS began the process of completely updating and expanding
that work, under the able leadership of Charlie Sturm, a research
associate in the Carnegie Museum Section of Mollusks. I'm
pleased to report that the work is now published:
"The Mollusks: A Guide to Their Study, Collection, and Preservation"
C. Sturm, T. Pearce, and A. Valdes (eds.)
Universal Publishers, Inc., Boca Raton, FL. xii + 445 pp. 101 ill.
An early proof copy of my Chapter 21 on freshwater gastropods has been
available from the FWGNA web site since 2003. But there are 31
chapters in total, including chapters on collecting and cleaning
shells, archival methods, digital and film imaging, dredging, taxonomic
methods and molecular techniques. There are chapters covering all seven
extant classes of mollusks (yes, even the Aplacophora and
Monoplacophora) from all environments, including the fossils. The
chapter on freshwater mussels is by Kevin Cummings & Art Bogan, and
the chapter on non-unionoid freshwater bivalves is by Alexi
Korniushin. No malacological library will be complete without a
copy of this book!
The bargain price is just $35.95, or two for $71.90. The American
Malacological Society is a not-for-profit organization. Revenue
from the book will help defray the costs of our scientific program,
student scholarships and grants. The AMS will earn more if the book is
ordered from the publisher than through commercial ventures such as
Amazon.com or Barnes&Nobles.com. Thus, I would encourage you to
order directly from the publisher:
http://universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581129300
Direct any questions to Charlie Sturm at <doc.fossil@gmail.com>.
Thank you all for your support of American malacology!
And we'll keep in touch,
Rob
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