

yew YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 252 M 1 Page 
New York schoolchildren? The fireboathouse will b - 
source center in Manhattan devoted to marine acOtoer ait mention 
sciences With small informal programs for elementary school chil- 
dren. 
From: COASTLINES, March/April 1979 
N.Y.S. Sea Grant Institute 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MARCH MEETING 
President Bill Walkwitz extended a welcome to Anne and Albert Tax- 
gon, who have been in Florida and had not attended meetings for 
several months. They will soon move to Florida, to the regret of 
their many friends in the New York area. 
At the February meeting, Carol Andrus had reported that her daughter 
had promised her grade-school class that Carol would speak before 
the group on the subject of shells. She then informed Carol. Carol 
gathered her courage and fulfilled the promise. Asked how she had 
fared, she reported a huge success. The kids were "fascinated" and 
the scheduled hour stretched to three. Carol thinks the talk and 
the exhibits conjured up a number of new shell collectors. And she 
was invited, on the spot, to lead a group on a beach-exploring trip 
come warm weather. 
The speaker was Bob Janowsky, whose subject was the difficulties 
and the present status of classification of the Muricidae. He 
pointed out that the major obstacle is that natyre doesn't arrange 
her creatures into neatly distinct groupings, but instead creates 
gradations. Her blurred boundaries are further confused by what 
the classifier sees as anomalies - supposed distinguishing charac- 
teristics appearing in generic or familial divisions where human 
beings say they don't belong. One result is the constant name- 
changing that is such a particular affliction of muricid fanciers. 
Tracing the major turning points in the history of classification, 
Bob pointed out that in Linné's time, all marine snails having si- 
phonal canals were considered muricids, and that the idea of the 
subgenus was introduced by Swainson in the 184048. In a series of 
shell photos made by himself, Bob pictured representative species 
of genera. in the subfamilies Muricinae, Muricopsinae, Ocenebrinae, 
lyphoninae and Typhinae. Among the Muricopsinae he showed the ex- 
quisite little new species Favartia dorothyae, named for his wife, 
Dorothy Janowsky. Genera that he examine in detail were Mares 
Chicoreus and Pterynotus of the subfamily Muricinae, and Ocenebra, 
Ceratostoma and Pteropurpura of the Ocenebrinae. 
Milton Werner, Recording Sec'y 

SHELL SHOW DATES: CLEVELAND, PORTLAND 
The Cleveland Shell Club will hold its Fifth Annual Show May 5-7; 
1979, at the Garden Center, 11030 East Boulevard, UDA Ges oe yt 
Cleveland. For information contact the Show Cee SET 
9321 Fairfield, Twinsburg, Ohio 44087. (Phone: 216: - 4 
The Oregon Society of Conchologists WELTY 1010 elle Ree ea 
‘ June 2nd 
Shell Show at the Oregon Museum of Science and eee cindia ree 
through June 10th. For information contact Thomas S. 1 
an, 347 NE 136th Ave., Portland, Oregon 97230. (Ph: 905% 253-5379) 
