ARGO

Willem Labeij in memoriam

2011-11-15T21:55:00.003+01:00

El viaje submarino de Willem Labeij

2011-11-15T12:01:00.000+01:00

Conchas vacías

2011-11-15T00:30:00.000+01:00

Conchas vacías de la arena

que dejó el mar cuando se fue,

cuando se fue el mar a viajar,

a viajar por los otros mares.

Dejó las conchas marineras,

pulidas por su maestría,

blancas de tanto ser besadas

por el mar que se fue de viaje.

P. Neruda

Maremoto. Ed. Pehuén. Chile, 1991.

En los Baños de Diana

2011-10-26T20:30:00.000+02:00

Fuente de los Baños de Diana. Jardines del palacio de la Granja. San Ildefonso, Segovia.

Untitled

2011-10-25T00:07:00.002+02:00

Venerupis corrugata

Untitled

2011-10-25T00:02:00.002+02:00

Turritella monilifera

La vía Láctea

2011-10-23T17:18:00.001+02:00

Pont Alexandre III, Paris.

2011-10-23T17:11:00.002+02:00

Alabaster Murex or Sailing Murex

2011-10-10T21:42:00.000+02:00

Siratus alabaster (Reeve, 1845), Philippines.

Shonkho

2011-07-16T16:51:00.000+02:00

Graphite.

Conch shell trumpet

2011-07-14T14:15:00.000+02:00

Tibet, 18th-19th century AD. British Museum.

Harvest

2011-07-05T14:07:00.000+02:00

Formas en blanco y negro

2011-07-04T02:12:00.002+02:00

Xenophora (Xenophora) Fischer von Waldheim, 1807

2011-06-29T10:03:00.000+02:00

Xenophora (Xenophora) mekranensis konoi Habe, 1953. Filipinas.

Stellaria Schmidt & Möller, 1832

2011-06-29T10:00:00.000+02:00

Stellaria chinensis chinensis (Philippi, 1841). Filipinas.

Onustus Swainson, 1840

2011-06-29T09:56:00.000+02:00

Onustus indicus (Gmelin, 1971). Filipinas.

Arte mesopotámico en concha

2011-06-10T16:18:00.000+02:00

Máscara amuleto

2011-05-09T12:21:00.000+02:00

Colgantes de concha

2011-05-06T16:57:00.000+02:00

Cazadores recolectores, Francia.

2011-05-05T15:50:00.002+02:00

Clausilia (Andraea) Pfeiffer 1848

2011-05-04T21:43:00.003+02:00

Clausilia (Andraea) dubia dubia Draparnaud 1805. Val d'Aran.

Clausilia (Clausilia) Draparnaud 1805

2011-05-04T21:39:00.000+02:00

Clausilia (Clausilia) bidentata abietina Dupuy 1849. Val d'Aran.

Cochlostoma (Obscurella) Clessin 1889

2011-05-04T21:35:00.004+02:00

Cochlostoma (Obscurella) partioti (Saint-Simon 1848). Val d'Aran.

Oxychilus (Ortizius) rateranus en Jaén

2011-05-03T14:49:00.004+02:00

El pasado año se descubrió la presencia de Oxychilus (Ortizius) rateranus en una cueva de Jaén.

The House of Mapuhi

2011-04-24T15:40:00.004+02:00

“Have you heard, Alec?” were his first words. “Mapuhi has found a pearl — such a pearl. Never was there one like it ever fished up in Hikueru, nor in all the Paumotus, nor in all the world. Buy it from him. He has it now. And remember that I told you first. He is a fool and you can get it cheap. Have you any tobacco?”

Straight up the beach to a shack under a pandanustree Raoul headed. He was his mother’s supercargo, and his business was to comb all the Paumotus for the wealth of copra, shell, and pearls that they yielded up. He was a young supercargo, it was his second voyage in such capacity, and he suffered much secret worry from his lack of experience in pricing pearls. But when Mapuhi exposed the pearl to his sight he managed to suppress the startle it gave him, and to maintain a careless, commercial expression on his face. For the pearl had struck him a blow. It was large as a pigeon egg, a perfect sphere, of a whiteness that reflected opalescent lights from all colors about it. It was alive. Never had he seen anything like it. When Mapuhi dropped it into his hand he was surprised by the weight of it. That showed that it was a good pearl.

He examined it closely, through a pocket magnifying-glass. It was without flaw or blemish. The purity of it seemed almost to melt into the atmosphere out of his hand. In the shade it was softly luminous, gleaming like a tender moon. So translucently white was it, that when he dropped it into a glass of water he had difficulty in finding it. So straight and swiftly had it sunk to the bottom that he knew its weight was excellent.

“Well, what do you want for it?” he asked, with a fine assumption of nonchalance.

“I want — ” Mapuhi began, and behind him, framing his own dark face, the dark faces of two women and a girl nodded concurrence in what he wanted. Their heads The House of Mapuhi were bent forward, they were animated by a suppressed eagerness, their eyes flashed avariciously.

“I want a house,” Mapuhi went on. “It must have a roof of galvanized iron and an octagon-drop-clock. It must be six fathoms long with a porch all around. A big room must be in the centre, with a round table in the middle of it and the octagon-drop-clock on the wall. There must be four bedrooms, two on each side of the big room, and in each bedroom must be an iron bed, two chairs, and a wash-stand. And back of the house must be a kitchen, a good kitchen, with pots and pans and a stove. And you must build the house on my island, which is Fakarava.”

Jack London

Taotie

2011-04-21T13:09:00.001+02:00

El Nido, Palawan

2011-04-21T12:27:00.004+02:00

Arts Festival & Earth Day Celebration
April 13-16

La perla de Alá

2011-04-14T22:43:00.004+02:00

La mayor perla del mundo fue hallada frente a las costas de Palawan, Filipinas, en 1934. Wilburn Cobb narró la historia de su descubrimiento en la revista del Museo de Historia Natural de New York, como una aventura no siempre creíble en los detalles. La Perla se hallaba en el interior de un ejemplar de Tridacna gigas y uno de los buzos, nativos musulmanes, murió atrapado por la concha.

En la forma irregular de la gran perla, de 24 cm. de diámetro y 6,4 kg. de peso, se apreciaba con claridad un turbante y un rostro. Según el artículo de Cobb “En esta imagen el Panglima se sorprendió al descubrir un parecido con Mahoma. Luego, como sus siervos estaban asombrados, el anciano se postró ante la perla y se puso a orar.”

Lo real y lo fantástico se entremezclan cada vez más. El mismo autor escribe en 1969 un extraño acontecimiento. Un Chino llamado Li dijo que se trataba de una perla cultivada hacía más de 2.500 años, que un amuleto de jade había sido introducido en una concha de tridacna pequeña y que, tras sucesivas fases, cambiando el tamaño o edad de la concha, la perla creció hasta ser la mayor del mundo. Posteriormente, desaparece en una tormenta en las proximidades de las islas Filipinas.

Las cifras que se llegaron a pagar, las antiguas y actuales dataciones pueden ser objeto de otro comentario sobre esta maravilla donde la aventura, el infortunio o la muerte hacen que siga siendo un enigma más próximo a la mitología que a la historia de ciencia.

The Pearl of Allah. Natural History, 44(4): 197-202 by Wilburn Dowell Cobb

Caitlin Williams & Kathie Hodson: ”The Pearl of Allah: the Facts, the Fiction and the Fraud”, Pearl-Guide.com

Foto: Drow male. Réplica de la Perla de Alá. Aquarium Finisterrae, A Coruña, Galicia, España.

Diverse

2011-04-04T17:10:00.002+02:00

Columbarium brayi Clench, 1959

2011-04-04T17:08:00.000+02:00

Untitled

2011-03-17T18:24:00.000+01:00

Pinhole photography

2011-03-17T18:12:00.001+01:00

Surimono

2011-03-17T10:41:00.001+01:00

Versión del original de Kanzan, siglo XIX. Maruyama-Shijo School, Japan.

Diverse

2011-03-16T15:22:00.002+01:00

Biplex perca (Perry, 1811)

Homalocantha anomaliae (Kosuge, 1979)

Melongena corona (Gmelin, 1791)

Las mensajeras del mar

2011-03-16T01:31:00.007+01:00

En la ventana, en el patio, en la huerta hay conchas vacías.
No siempre sabemos cómo llegaron hasta allí, a quedarse en esos sitios.
Algunas fueron de un familiar, otras un regalo o un olvido.

Fotos: mgm, Cynthia Sumagaysay

Untitled

2011-03-13T16:41:00.005+01:00

Jomon

2011-03-13T15:24:00.004+01:00

Earthenware pot in the shape of the gastropod from the Stone Age from Japan (4000 years ago).

Sankha Conch

2011-03-13T13:55:00.001+01:00

The Patamakanthin's Shell World

2011-03-12T02:05:00.003+01:00

Depth

2011-03-11T18:48:00.001+01:00

Turritella, papel y tinta China

2011-03-11T18:41:00.000+01:00

La caracola de oro

2011-03-02T00:54:00.000+01:00

Homalocantha Mörch, 1852

2011-03-01T20:53:00.002+01:00

Homalocantha oxyacantha (Broderip, 1833). Mexico.

Giant clam

2011-03-01T20:24:00.001+01:00

Tridacna squamosa Lamarck, 1819. Palawan.

Mirrors

2011-02-01T18:05:00.005+01:00

2010-12-19T00:51:00.001+01:00

Phasianella Lamarck, 1804

2010-12-19T00:48:00.001+01:00

Phasianella australis Gmelin, 1791. Australia.

Cochlorina Jan, 1830

2010-07-13T17:19:00.000+02:00

Cochlorina uranops Pilsbry, 1989. Bulimulidae. Brasil.

En lo alto del mihrab

2010-07-09T22:18:00.003+02:00

Cúpula del mihrab de la mezquita de Córdoba (siglo X). Diseño estilizado de Pecten.
Fuente: artencordoba.com

The Gate

2010-07-06T17:07:00.001+02:00

Model of "The Gate" to the new gallery-like shell museum, the "SHELL WORLD", to be opened near the end of July 2010 at Jungceylon Shopping Complex, Patong Beach, Phuket Island, Thailand, designed from the beauty of powerful sculpture of a local species Lambis chiragra (Strombidae) by Mr. Dussadee Rukmanee (or as "Naidee Chaangmoh", (Mr. Dee - the Potter) name in the Thai Artist Society)... A Gate to the place belongs to the own world of Mollusks.... Owned by Jom & Patamakanthin Family.

Argonauta

2010-07-06T13:04:00.000+02:00

Argonautiká

Todos los colores

2010-07-05T19:49:00.000+02:00

Umbonium vestiarium (Linnaeus, C., 1758) from Cox’s Bazar, Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh.

2010-07-03T12:44:00.002+02:00

Untitled

2010-07-03T12:29:00.001+02:00

Apuntes en color

2010-07-03T12:27:00.001+02:00

Turbo petholatus (babies)

2010-06-30T23:44:00.002+02:00

Tegula (Chlorostoma) Swainson, 1840

2010-06-30T23:43:00.000+02:00

Tegula (Chlorostoma) xanthostigma (Adams, 1853). Japón.

Tectus (Rochia) Gray, 1857

2010-06-30T23:39:00.000+02:00

Tectus (Rochia) pyramis pyramis (Born, 1778). Filipinas.

Margarites Gray, 1847

2010-06-30T23:21:00.001+02:00

Callogaza Dall, 1881

2010-06-30T23:19:00.001+02:00

Callogaza sericata Kuroda in Kira, 1959. Filipinas.

Cantharidus (Kanekotrochus) Habe, 1958

2010-06-30T23:15:00.001+02:00

Cantharidus (Kanekotrochus) gilberti (Montrouzier in Fischer, 1878). Filipinas.

Jujubinus Monterosato, 1884

2010-06-30T23:13:00.000+02:00

Jujubinus escondidus Poppe, Tagaro & Dekker, 2006. Filipinas.

Nautilus

2010-06-26T12:25:00.000+02:00

Edward Weston, 1927.

from Lake Tanganyika

2010-06-25T00:20:00.000+02:00

Tiphobia horei (Smith, 1880). Pleuroceridae (para algunos, Thiaridae).

Cantharidus gilberti

2010-06-24T23:11:00.000+02:00

2010-06-23T21:27:00.001+02:00

Liotinaria Habe, 1955

2010-06-23T21:22:00.000+02:00

Liotinaria peronii (Kiener, 1839). Filipinas.

Vaceuchelus Iredale, 1929

2010-06-23T21:17:00.000+02:00

Vaceuchelus vangoethemi Poppe, Tagaro & Dekker, 2006. Filipinas.

Angaria Röding, 1798

2010-06-23T21:13:00.000+02:00

Angaria poppei Monsecour & Monsecour, 1999. Filipinas.

Primeras vueltas

2010-06-23T21:07:00.000+02:00

Astralium calcar (Linnaeus, 1758). 6 mm.

Bolma (Galeoastraea) Kuroda & Habe, 1958

2010-06-23T20:58:00.001+02:00

Bolma (Galeoastraea) tamikoana (Shikama, 1973). Filipinas.

Bolma (Bolma) Risso, 1826

2010-06-23T20:55:00.000+02:00

Bolma (Bolma) microconcha Kosuge, 1985. Filipinas.

Bolma (Bolma) Risso, 1826

2010-06-23T20:53:00.002+02:00

Bolma (Bolma) minutiradiosa Kosuge, 1983.Filipinas

Nautilus and others

2010-06-19T23:04:00.000+02:00

Bamboo

2010-06-19T22:59:00.002+02:00

Diseño geométrico

2010-06-19T15:12:00.001+02:00

Hohokam: AD 200-1450. Arizona. EE.UU.

Objetos mesopotámicos en concha

2010-06-19T13:50:00.001+02:00

1-2. Anillos. Mari, hacia 1400–1100 BC.
3-8. Amuletos zoomorfos.
Leopardo. Uruk tardío. 3300BC–3000BC; Perro? Sumerio, hacia 2900-2200 BC.

Águilas. Mari, Sumerios. 2900–2340 BC; Buitre. Periodo Djemdet-Nasr, Tell Asmar. 3100-2900;

Bóvido. Tello. Entre el periodo Djemdet-Nasr y el Uruk. Musee du Louvre, excepto 3 (British Museum).

Turritella Lamarck, 1799

2010-06-19T09:46:00.000+02:00

Turritella banksi Reeve, 1840. Isla Gobernadora, Panamá.

Bolma rugosa, juvenil

2010-06-18T23:01:00.000+02:00

2010-06-18T22:37:00.002+02:00

Untitled

2010-06-18T22:26:00.003+02:00

Haliotis (Paua) iris (Gmelin, J.F., 1791)

Cittarium pica (Linnaeus, C., 1758)

2010-06-18T22:07:00.001+02:00

Tricolia Risso, 1826

2010-06-18T21:36:00.000+02:00

Tricolia speciosa (Mühlfeldt, 1824)

Tricolia pullus pullus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Calliostoma Swainson, 1840

2010-06-18T21:28:00.000+02:00

Calliostoma virescens Renie in Coen, 1933. Adriático.

Calliostoma (Calliostoma) Swainson, 1840

2010-06-18T21:26:00.000+02:00

Calliostoma (Calliostoma) laugieri (Payraudeau, 1826). Mediteráneo.

2010-06-17T23:50:00.000+02:00

Gibbula (Forskalena) Iredale, 1918

2010-06-17T23:48:00.000+02:00

Gibbula (Forskalena) fanulum Gmelin, 1790. Mediterráneo.

Gibbula (Phorcas) Leach in Gray, 1847

2010-06-17T23:46:00.000+02:00

Gibbula (Phorcas) richardi (Payraudeau, 1826). Mediterráneo.

Gibbula (Steromphala) Leach in Gray, 1847

2010-06-17T23:45:00.000+02:00

Gibbula (Steromphala) divaricata (Linnaeus, 1758). Mediterráneo.

Gibbula (Tumulus) Monterosato, 1888

2010-06-17T23:41:00.002+02:00

Gibbula (Tumulus) umbilicaris (Linnaeus, 1758). Cerdeña.

Untitled

2010-06-15T01:31:00.001+02:00

La magia dell'architetto chiamato mare

2010-06-14T20:30:00.001+02:00

Thatcheria mirabilis Angas, 1877

Peonzas y otras conchas

2010-06-13T18:51:00.002+02:00

Pliegues de la boca

2010-06-13T18:38:00.000+02:00

Leiostyla (Scarabella) cassida (Lowe, 1831). Endemismo? Madeira.

Granaria variabilis (Draparnaud, 1801)

2010-06-13T17:49:00.001+02:00

Estudio de los pliegues de la boca.

Daily Drawings

2010-06-13T12:27:00.002+02:00

Biplex sp. Ranellidae. China.

Having a small cafe' & restaurant at our new Shell World Museum (Phuket, Thailand). We are planning to serve some yummy seafood menus on these special-made shell bowls!

2010-06-11T17:28:00.002+02:00

Tiziano Nesi

2010-06-08T01:06:00.000+02:00

L'enigma della spirale. Dibujo a carboncillo.

Turbo (Marmarostoma) Swainson, 1829

2010-06-08T01:01:00.000+02:00

Turbo (Marmarostoma) radiatus Gmelin, 1791. Mayotte.

Ethalia Adams & Adams, 1854

2010-06-08T00:57:00.001+02:00

Ethalia guamensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1834). Japón.