How to navigate this site

This site is set up like a book, with  Tables of Contents at the front and an Index at the end.  Each family of shells has a textual introduction, a plate showing all the species in the family together, and a page for each species.

Choose one of three ways to navigate this site:

1. Table of Contents

Start with the one of the three Tables of Contents:

By scientific family name, in scientific (ie, evolutionary) order.

By scientific family name, in alphabetical order

By common name, in alphabetical order.

 In the index, the entries in the left column take you to the textual introduction for a family.  The entries in the right column take you to the illustrations for a family.

2. Browse illustrations

Browse illustrations of families and species.  This will take you to the first family plate; choose Next plate or Previous plate at the top of each page to move backwards and forwards through the plates.

3. Index

This is the index of scientific names of species.