Pacific ocean shells

[Juanvarela]

Hello,
Does any one has the reference of a good guide for shells in the pacific in general
or in the gulf of california?
thanks in advance
Juan

[paul monfils]

There is no single guide to shells of "the Pacific in general" because the Pacific covers so many diverse geographic areas, each with a distinct variety of species. Such a book would have to include tens of thousands of different species. The species of western South America are quite different from the species of the western North America, or Alaska/Russia, or China/Japan, or the Philippines, or Indonesia, or Australia. Of course some species have a much greater range than others. A particular species might be found in every country from China to Australia. On the other hand, there are species in New Zealand that are not found in Australia, or in Japan but not China.

The most comprehensive book ever written for the specific area you mentioned is Seashells of Tropical West America by A. Myra Keen. It is over 1,000 pages, and includes just about every species known from that geographic area at the time the book was published. However, that was almost 60 years ago, so a good number of new species and taxonomic revisions have occurred since it was published. Also, the pictures are small and black and white. Nevertheless, I still think the book is a must for anyone interested in the molluscan fauna of that geographic area. There are copies the book available online for very reasonable prices.