European Seashells, Volume 1 Polyplacophora, Caudofoveata, Solenogastra, Gastropoda

About this book

Please note that the hardback is now out of print. The publisher received a few paperback copies that were produced accidentally by the printer which are now the last copies available.

The first comprehensive guide to European marine Gastropoda.

From the foreword:

"Although there are already many illustrated guidebooks available on the marine molluscs of the Atlantic and Mediterranean European coasts, none of them deal extensively with the systematics of the entire fauna. On the other hand, more specialized and exhaustive works on marine European seashells are not always satisfactorily illustrated for the needs of amateurs or beginners.

It is very difficult to design a book combining the advantages of both kinds of work: being a guide suitable to help in a simple way, the inexperienced shell collector to identify specimens, and being a survey as complete as possible, of the taxonomy and nomenclature of the fauna that it reviews.

This book is likely to be among the first that try to bridge this gap for the non-bivalve, temperate, eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean molluscs and the authors deserve much credit for having undertaken such an important task. [...] The authors have long been familiarized with the fauna of the European coasts, having intensively collected material, observed biotopes, and studied the available literature. However, their work is not and does not pretend to be a scientific or nomenclatural revision of the fauna.

It is a useful tool for the amateur as well as for the student or specialist, provided that is is utilized intelligently, with other sources of information. Many beautiful books are available on shells from the tropics or on particular families of molluscs. This work will probably grant in the same way the European seashells, with the place they deserve in modem, popular literature on world molluscs."

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