Meetings
Monthly meetings are held on the Third Thursday of each month from September through June at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. These meetings begin at 7:45 PM and usually conclude around 9:30 PM. Refreshments are provided by club members. In addition, a local shell dealer usually has shells for sale.
Below is a listing of recent and upcoming meetings:
September 17th, 2009 - The speaker for the September shell club meeting was Dr. Janice Voltzow from the University of Scranton. The title of her talk was "Gastropod gills gather goo: Suspension feeding in marine snails." She sent this paragraph describing the subject: "Molluscan gills have bands of cilia that drive water over the gas exchange surface and other cilia that remove particles that become caught in the mucus covering the gills. Using the gill to suspension feed should therefore be a fairly simple modification. In fact, the tremendous diversification of bivalves is due at least in part to their ability to feed using their gills. That so few gastropods are suspension feeders is therefore surprising. I will describe convergent evolution in the feeding structures and behaviors of suspension feeding snails that give some insight into the evolution of this function."
October 15, 2009 - Grungefest: Meeting attendees received parcels of small Philippine shells. The meeting was devoted to sorting and identifying these shells, with aid and comfort provided by the Malacology department. Each member was able to keep the shells in his/her parcel.
October 15, 2009 - Grungefest: Meeting attendees received parcels of small Philippine shells. The meeting was devoted to sorting and identifying these shells, with aid and comfort provided by the Malacology department. Each member was able to keep the shells in his/her parcel.
November 19, 2009 - Richard Goldberg gave a fascinating talk on "Snails with Snorkels".
December 17, 2009 - Annual Holiday Party
January 21, 2010 - J. B. Sessoms presented a slide show of past shell shows
December 17, 2009 - Annual Holiday Party
January 21, 2010 - J. B. Sessoms presented a slide show of past shell shows
February 18, 2010 - Dr. Takenori Sasaki of the University Museum at the University of Tokyo in Japan gave a talk entitled "Micromollusks: how to collect and study small shells". Dr. Sasaki is an internationally acknowledged expert on the Archaeogastropoda, and is also widely known for his work on micromollusks.
March 19, 2010 - Dr. Chris Meyer, from the Smithsonian Institution, will be the speaker for the March meeting. The title of his talk is "Within One Cubic Foot", about the marine species found in a single section of reef in Moorea, French Polynesia. This work was included recently in National Geographic.
April 15, 2010 - Speaker to be announced.
May 20, 2010 - Annual auction
June 17, 2010 - Speaker to be announced.
August 2010 - Annual Club Picnic