Shell and Tell The newsletter of the Gulf Coast Shell Club Argopecten irradians concentricus (Say, 1822) Published by the Gulf Coast Shell Club, Inc. January - February 2021 President’s Message Got a text from Linda and she said it was time for another newsletter, and I thought, WOW, that was here quick. Last year was the fastest slowest year I can remember. I thought it would never end and I turned around and it was gone. The year may be gone but one constant is that the ocean and beaches are still here to be enjoyed. So, get out there and enjoy the beaches and the ocean that keeps turning and bring- ing in new treasures. Maybe it will bring that special sea shell you are looking for. President Happy New Year! Phyllis Bernard Phyllis Inside A Chat with the Treasurer...........................................2 Warning................................................................2 This is not a Science Lesson.......................................3 Photographs or Drawings..........................................6 From a Friend............................................................6 The Father of American Conchology............................7 Member News...........................................................8 Brant Took a Walk.......................................................8 Shows 2021............................................................10 Club Officers: President - Phyllis Bernard Vice President - Luke Cooley Secretary -Paula Meyerriecks Corresponding Secretary - D. J. Moore Treasurer - Jim Brunner Tides - Bill Horvath Membership - Phyllis Bernard Librarian - Gwen Lawrence Raffle - Don Kittsmiller Newsletter - Linda Brunner A Chat With the Treasurer I know that you are all delighted that 2020 is now in the rearview mirror. As of this writing the high point of the pandemic has not been reached but as more and more vaccine becomes available that tsunami will recede into the background. Hopefully by the late spring we will be able to begin holding meetings again (can’t wait to see you all again). While the past year has been tedious and trying for many of you, it has been anything but for the treasury. Shell book sales (primarily on-line) brought in $871.85 and Shell List #1-18 equaled $3,250.75. This brings our bank balance to a record high of $15,792.50. Now to the future where there are three items that we must collectively consider: 1. Shells on the shell lists have been priced at 50% or less of retail price. We may be able to constitute lists #19 and 20 from the stock of shells still left on hand (a considerable number) but after that the prices would escalate into the low to mid-hundreds per shell mak- ing this method of getting shells into the hands of members difficult at best. Better that we retain them for a summer auction or for the club booth at our next shell show. Your thoughts on this would be helpful. 2. Shell Show. If the membership is agreeable I would like to look into scheduling a date for a 2021 Shell Show sometime in late July to early August. Hopefully we will be out of the pandemic woods by then and will feel safe about such a venture. 3. Shell Book. Seashells of the Florida Panhandle has done well for the club since its first sales in 2011. Over 6300 copies of the book have gone out and over $30,000 has come in. (I know you just compared the numbers and are wondering why the treasury isn’t larger. Remember that we had 9 shell shows (2011-2019) with an average loss for each at $2,000- $2,500.). Currently we are down to 300 copies and need to think about a 3rd Edition if we wish to continuing selling them. Linda and I have started working on updating the material for the book. We really haven’t pushed sales since Hurricane Michael and have only sold 450 copies in the last 30 months suggesting that there is a pent-up demand out there. If we do reorder another 3,000 copies ($3800-4000) someone else will have to assume responsibility for sales beginning in January 2022. We need your input on all three of these topics. You may do that by responding to this news- letter email. Hope to see you soon. Jim B Warning! Most of us have seen shells with fishing line embedded. We have read reports of the plastic six pack rings choking or binding birds . Now we have another hazzard that we must guard against.....Masks! If you discard a mask ALWAYS cut the ear loops first. There are many re- ports of wildlife getting entangled in these loops resulting in death from starvation and/or strangulation. Dispose of your disposable masks properly, please! 2 This is Not a Science Lesson! How much do you know about our club logo? Do you know its name? Has it always had the same name? Why is it orange? Are orange scallops poisonous? Do the yellow ones taste different? And on and on and o......! Back in 1979 when the Gulf Coast Shell Club was found- ed and incorporated the members, along with forming a constitution and bylaws, chose a logo. Scalloping in the bays was a popular activity and oystering was the way many made their living. Other shells were just an inter- esting diversion to some. When it came time to choose a logo many thought the local scallop, especially the or- ange and yellow ones were quite pretty and it was de- cided that the scallop would be the club logo. As years passed the orange colored ones were favored. Yellow ones were scarce but one could often find the vivid or- ange shells when they went scalloping for dinner. Re- search also showed that no other club in Florida used the scallop as their logo so the bay scallop was selected. Wait a minute. Bay Scallop? I thought it was called the Southern Scallop. No, I read an article where it was the Southern Bay Scallop. What is it? So goes the argu- ment for using scientific nomenclature. Before we get into scallop rumor and gossip let’s look at how the shell is classified. Remember high school science and biology. We were taught that all living things have a name and a family. Teachers had all kinds of ways for us to remember all of these different groups. The first one I learned was all about King Philip. He came over for spaghetti. Not just any spaghetti but great spaghetti! Before we go deeper into King Philip you may notice that some of the illustrations begin with domain. Domain? King Philip did not have a domain. No, he didn’t. You are not losing your mind unless you were born in the 1980s. In that case you might know. Linnaeus, when he created his classification system, used kingdom as the largest, most general, group. It wasn’t until 1990 that Domain was created as the high- est, most general group in the system further defining the groups. Now let’s plug the basics into the system. 3 King=Kingdom Remember that we, amongst living things, have kingdoms. Does animal kingdom or plant king dom ring a bell? Actually there are 7 kingdoms but we remember these 2 more than the other five. Our scallop is an animal. Philip=Phylum Next the kingdoms are divided into phylums. This is the next largest group after kingdom. It is Mollusca. Came=Class We all want to have class. Class is the next rank. The class is Bivalvia. Over=Order The next group is order. Order is more specific than class. We, you and I, belong to the order Primate. Our scallop is Pectinida. For=Family You understand this don’t you? You belong to the Morgan or Mitchell or Bernard family. Its family is Pectinidae. Great=Genus This is more to the point than family and is part of an organism’s scientific name using binomial nomencla- ture. The scallop genus is Argopecten. Spaghetti=Species Now we are down to specifics, get it? This is the most specific part of an organisms name. Our spe- cific name is irradians. Okay. Let’s look at our scallop. Where did it start? It all started when Lamarck named our logo Pecten irradians in 1819. Now the classification we all learned with King Philip has been further divided. I will leave their discovery to your independent curiosity. You and I will stay with the basics. So Lamarck originally named our shell in 1819 but it is not that name any more. This is primarily due to our expanding knowledge. Now, if you look at our Mast Head you will see changes. Lamarck is not even there. Our logo is now a dif- ferent genus with a different author and a species and sub- species. Expanding knowledge can be troublesome at times. Later in the year 1889 Monterosato erected a new genus called Argopecten which sub-divided Pecten. The author of 4 the shell did not change but, whenever there is a genus- change, the author and date are placed in parentheses. So its name became Argopecten irradians (Lamarck, 1819). This tells us that Lamarck named the shell in 1819 but somewhere along the way the genus was changed because there are parens around the author and date. But our shell has 3 names and a different author. Who kicked Lamarck to the curb? Actually, we did. As our knowledge increased scientists decided that there were significant differences in the shell from different places. so, subspecies were erected. Now we have 3 different subspecies. They are: Argopecten irradians irradians (Lamarck, 1819) from Canada down the east coast about to Florida Argopecten irradians concentricus (Say, 1822) This is our guy whose range is from east of the Mississippi around the coast to about Tampa.