Last week I had to do a little yard work to remove an old hibiscus tree that had seen better days and was more dead than alive. While digging out the root ball I had to dig down a few feet in the sandy material that passes for soil here in South Florida. It is not uncommon to find lots of shells while digging--the ground is literally shot through with small bivalves (mostly Chione sp.) and small conch, murex, and whelks are not particularly rare finds either. I have a small collection of some of