Welcome

to cypraea.eu. I show my snail collection here. Specifically, I show my collection of shells, associated with the Cypraeidae family. Ranked I have the species under the scheme of Felix Lorenz. So, as it was listed in April 2009 on his website. According to this, there are 248 different species - of these I picture 237. Overall, I have added 2,000+ cowries in over 14,000 photos.

At a glance

Beside the below shown features all sets can be grouped and expanded with other data (finding place, dealer, price, ...). Any specimen is also available in a higher resolution.

 
Finding places with Google maps
 
Comparison
 
Several views
 
List of introduced names

Fossil Cowries

For some time I have some fossil cowries in my collection and never really knew quite how I can integrate here. Originally I wanted to expand the generic and specific overviews by the fossil taxa, but then I finally decided against it and pack my ancient records now in the smorgasbord section Bits & Pieces visit ›

 
 

That's how it works

The pages "Genera" and "Species" show the contents I would mainly like to exhibit. Therefore, I am going to describe briefly how the information is being presented. continue reading

Are you an expert?

Bent on solving a riddle? Here you will see pictures of cowries and ten different, possible names. Just one of them - you think! - is the right one. Give it a try.

enter riddle

Glossary

At some points you may find expressions which are not commonly used, especially when it comes to the description of shells. Therefore, I have compiled a list of those expressions to be found here.


continue reading

Cordial thanks to

warhorse Volker, who tooks 4,571 (four thousand five hundred seventy-one) Photos of 653 conches. This included not only a lot of hard work but also all the reflections around it. Without his help I would have never started with this website. Also, I have to say Thank You to the Marzipan Man aka Naschkater Markus for his efforts arround the list of synonyms and to my dear brother Markus, who helped me with the translations.  

Updates

January-17-2012

Two fairly nice lots with a total of 550 cowries are sold by order of a third party: Lot I , Lot II

January-09-2012

17 fossil cowries uploaded

January-08-2012

12 fossil cowries uploaded

January-05-2012

Thirty new shells

December-30-2011

Added fourteen new shells
Four 360°-Views uploaded
New diagram regarding fossils

December-29-2011

Fifty-seven new shells

December-01-2011

Fifteen new shells

November-11-2011

Fourteen new shells

July-24-2011

Small change: The detail view opens now a new tab and will not be shown in the same tab any longer.

July-22-2011

At long last photographed and uploaded: Fossil Cowries

July-11-2011

11 new 360° views

July-10-2011

Venusta-Days: 7 pieces

July-08-2011

Eighteen new shells

July-06-2011

Twelve new shells

July-04-2011

Nine new shells and furthermore an extension of the references. Now included Burgess 1985 and Wilson & Clarkson 2004.

June-29-2011

I have uploaded 21 new shells and made in addition also some minor adjustments.

March-09-2011

14 new shells

March-06-2011

19 new shells

March-04-2011

I made many modifications - when something doesn't behave as expected, press the F5-Key (equals the Refresh-Button) and everything should be ok again.

March-04-2011

15 new shells

March-01-2011

22 new shells

January-07-2011

9 new shells

January-04-2011

14 new from Vietnam

January-01-2011

Happy New Year! Up to and including November all entries are in. This means, I just uploaded 92 shells. The total for that month were 217 cowries. Never again!

December-22-2010

Thirty new shells

December-17-2010

Thirty-six new shells

December-14-2010

Twenty-two new shells

December-12-2010

Forty-two new shells

December-09-2010

Eight new shells

November-09-2010

Geography is online. Now, you can watch almost all localities in a nice Google Map.

November-03-2010

I have found and added some new synonyms.

October-27-2010

During the last days I have added some new 360°-Views.

October-20-2010

I have expanded the details below the maps with some illustrative symbols. Moreover the markers are indicating now the deviations: until 10 km (empty), 100 km (smal plus-sign), 1.000 km (big plus-sign) and more than 1.000 km (question mark).

October-19-2010

10 new ones.

October-16-2010

Zoila-Day: 10 new ones. Among them three ketyana

October-15-2010

28 new shells. And, as well, finally I can show garciai

October-12-2010

Six new cowries added.

October-11-2010

Eighteen new shells added.

October-08-2010

Twenty-six new shells and finally updated the list of dealers.

September-20-2010

360° views: Refill!

September-15-2010

Last weekend I have made a few attempts with 360° photos. The results are not yet well but usable and worth seeing.

June-03-2010

Six new shells

May-31-2010

Eight new shells.

May-28-2010

Seven new shells.

May-27-2010

Fourteen new shells.

May-16-2010

Fifteen new shells.

May-03-2010

Sixteen new shells.

May-01-2010

Sixteen new shells.

April-26-2010

There is a new grouping. Now it is possible to compare all per region. The regions for that were set by me and then assigned to the cowries.

April-18-2010

The behaviour of the initial pages Genera, Species, Dealer and New has changed. Now, you are reaching no langer any content but a summary of each group.

April-09-2010

Done! Thus, all entries, bought in February, uploaded.

April-08-2010

Pictures of eight new shells and furthermore the Sitemap uploaded.

April-05-2010

Once again: inserted 19 new shells.

April-01-2010

After a long time finally some new photos once again. Eleven shells, all bought in January - including also a nice fultoni

March-25-2010

I have modified this welcome page.

March-14-2010

The lists of synonyms are now matched to the species.

March-05-2010

On each species site are now listed the related names (synonyms, formae, etc). More than helpful!

February-20-2010

I had forgotten to enter the subspecies tuamotensis and mayi. Besides, I had forgotten to delete the subspecies calista and meridionalis. The errors are now corrected.

February-16-2010

Plus 14 shells

February-08-2010

Google maps available. Still some minor crudities.

February-06-2010

Google maps available. For the time beeing only for the species view. Does not work completely.

January-23-2010

Just inputted dozens of moneta. Many different locations. What a round trip!

January-21-2010

Added 18 shells

January-18-2010

Plus 28 shells

January-12-2010

Plus 20 shells

January-08-2010

Plus 12 shells

January-07-2010

Plus 14 shells

December-08-2009

"Leave a message" is now available. › Contact

December-04-2009

Plus 30 conches & moderately new website style

December-02-2009

Implemented two new categories in the main navigation: Dealer and New.

November-11-2009

Plus 34 shells.

November-07-2009

Plus 18 shells. And some modifications.

October-28-2009

About 40 wrong determinations fixed. Thank you very much for your help Riccardo!

October-28-2009

Erosaria splittet into two groups (a-h) and (i-t).

October-25-2009

Plus 61 shells.

September-24-2009

Cypraeovula splittet into two groups (a-d) and (e-v).

August-11-2009

Plus 59 shells.

August-02-2009

Beta has finished but still no logo. I have added about 1,400 new photos - 200 snails.

July-01-2009

Online - Beta. Not too bad, but some translations are pending.

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