worldwideconchology.com

MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS

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Slide Presentations | Quizzes | Games | Background Music

Slide Presentations include short, focused programs on a particular conchological topic or molluscan group. The interactive slide screen opens in a separate resizeable window. Buttons to advance to the next, or review the previous slide is located in the lower right corner of the slide window. The text panel to the right of the image slide will have additional information about each image, including the slide number and total number of slides. Depending on your Internet connection speed and the amount of Internet traffic at the time of viewing, it will take about a minute or two for the slides to load (slide loading status is visible in the bottom Status Bar on Netscape browsers). For instance, with a 28.8kbs modem connection, it will take about a minute for a presentation of nine slides to load during the high peak evening hours; sometimes longer. Be patient. And enjoy the presentations.
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The Chiton Fauna of Bali by Enrico Schwabe. Through pictures and field notes, this presentation reviews and illustrates many of the Chiton species known from the Indonesian island of Bali. The resurgence of interest in the Polyplacophora, better known as the Chitons has brought about an increase in field work and discovery of new species. One of the proponents of the resurgence is 27 years old Enrico Schwabe, collection manager of the Molluscan Section of the Zoological State Collection, Munich, Germany. Enrico started to collect mollusks in his teens. While working in the building trades he cut his teeth studying chitons as an amateur malacologist. After four years of specializing in the group, and with extensive field experience, Enrico is now preparing manuscripts describing new species discovered during his field work. A list of his publications can be found on the Zoologische Staatssammlung München Web site. Enrico welcomes contact with other field collectors of recent and fossil chitons from around the world.
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Beautiful Snails from the Limestone of Borneo by Jaap Vermeulen and Tony Whitten. This slide presentation is excerpted from their book Biodiversity and Cultural Property in the Management of Limestone Resources - Lessons from East Asia, a World Bank Directions in Development series publication (1999). The presentation is an overview of the fascinating micro snails that inhabit the limestone cliffs and caves of Borneo. The dynamic duo, Vermeulen, a taxonomist, orchid authority, and illustrator extraordinaire, and Whitten, a multi-published author and noted biodiversity specialist with the World Bank, have collaborated on many land shell research projects in Southeast Asia. They are leading authorities on the terrestial molluscan fauna and ecology of this region. Their previously published collaboration is Guide to the Land Snails of Bali, part of the Fauna Malesiana series. A PDF copy of the entire ...Limestone Resources book is available on the World Bank Biodiversity Web Site. It is very informative and worth reading. Enjoy this very special presentation.
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"What Beauty Is" - The Art of Hans Niklaus. Walk through a virtual art gallery featuring the paintings of artist Hans Niklaus. Hans has a genuine love of shells. His highly organized shell collection is growing -- each new shell becoming inspiration for his artistic pursuits. Hans has an uncanny ability to translate the beauty and subtile detail of shells onto a 2-dimensional surface. Hans will take you on a guided tour of his favorite creations, all with a shell theme. If you've never had an opportunity to see some of Hans Niklaus' artwork, you are in for a pleasant surprise.
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Rare Helicostyla. A group of tree snails generically referred to as the Helicostyla inhabit the islands of the Philippines, south into Indonesia. The striking colors and patterns of these shells have made the Helicostylids extremely popular with collectors. Many of the species have a very limited distribution, often known from only one island. Deforestation has had a significant impact in the rapid decline and possible extinction of at least a few of the Helicostylids. This slide presentation illustrates a few of the most spectacular and rare among these snails.
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CONCHOLOGICAL QUIZ Test your knowledge on a variety of conchological topics.

Conchological Quiz #1. How knowledgeable are you about the world of conchology? Here's is an interactive multiple choice quiz to test your conchological acumen. This first quiz deals with a variety of topics including nomenclature, taxonomy, and biogeography. You won't win a million dollars for getting all the answers correct, but the quiz will get you to think about a broad range of subjects related to conchology. Good luck.
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Conchological Quiz #2. Conchology and geography go hand-in-hand. A well documented shell collection containing detailed locality and habitat data for each shell adds to its scientific value. So it is not surprising that serious shell collectors become quite interested and knowledgeable about obscure and remote localities throughout the world, and the range within which many species of mollusks are found. This quiz will challenge your biogeographical knowledge as it relates to conchology.
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GAMES After the serious business of studying and identifying shells, take a break and enjoy some of these games, puzzles, and diversions.

Shell Changer. Have you ever wondered what a shell would look like if they were sinistral, meaning left-handed when holding the spire upwards? Do shells reveal more sculptural detail when the color is removed? These questions can be answered using "Shell Changer", a useful and fun filtering tool that manipulates images, allowing you to see shells in reverse as if they were sinistral, or dextral (right-handed), and in various monochromatic states removing the color and enhancing sculptural detail..

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Slice And Scramble Shell. In this game, a shell is sliced into 20 pieces for you to rearrange and put back together. It's not as easy as it looks. The game may not work with older browser versions.

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Capital Cities & Counties Hangman Game. How knowledgeable are you with capital city and country names. In conjunction with the new Internet Map Resources link, here is a rather addicting version of hangman that will get you mulling through your maps in search of place names. Over 50 country names are currently represented. What is the reward for a correct answer? A litany of information about the correctly guessed locality name. Good luck!
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Picture Memory - created by Kien Caoxuan. Take your time and study the underwater picture very carefully. When you are ready, start the memory test. The game will ask you where you saw the pieces. See if you can get all 15 right! It's not as easy as it sounds! Unfortunately, I do not think you will find any shells in this scene. Have fun!
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Magnifying Glass - created by Peter Gehrig & Urs Dudli. One of the fascinating conchological pursuits is taking a closer look at the sculpture, color, and pattern of shells. An eye-loupe, or magnifying glass becomes an essential tool for shell collectors. We've added shell images to this virtual magnifying glass to allow a closer look at the detail of digital shell images. The magnifying glass can be dragged over a thumbnail image to reveal the beauty and detail of the shell. Enjoy your closer look. New images will be added periodically.
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The Seashell Slider Puzzle will challenge even the most skilled puzzle aficionado. Placing the mouse pointer over the juxtaposed puzzle pieces slides each into the free-space in pursuit of solving the puzzle. The solved puzzle reveals two color forms of the bullet-shaped Strombid, Terebellum terebellum. The nine box puzzle is not as easy to solve as it may first appear.
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Tic Tac Toe / Shell Image of the Moment Are your eyes becoming crossed from counting ribs on micro shells? Break away from the eye-strain and add some x's to this interactive tic tac toe game, which includes an inspiring shell picture of the moment, changed each time you reload the game. Just right click the game window and press reload, or refresh to clear the board and load a new picture. You can challenge yourself to an easy, moderately hard, or ridiculously difficult game of tic tac toe. I warn you -- it's addicting! (best viewed on I.E. 5.0+)
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Jigsaw PuzzleMaker© - created by Jim Collins -- supported by Shockwave.com©. Here's a way to take any shell image on worldwideconchology.com and turn it into a virtual computer jigsaw puzzle. After saving a favorite shell image or one of your own to a folder on your hard drive, you can import the image file into Jigsaw Puzzlemaker©. Click on the PuzzleMaker title above to get started. In order to use Jigsaw PuzzleMaker© you may be prompted to download Shockwave software if not already installed on your computer. Just follow the on-screen directions (click here for an important note before downloading any multimedia software.). Shockwave is an Internet-based multimedia program that can be used to view and listen to thousands of multimedia materials available on the Web. Once Jigsaw PuzzleMaker© starts, resize the pop-up window to reveal the entire PuzzleMaker template. Click "Okay" if you receive a message about your monitor resolution. Click the "launch" button after the programs loads and follow the on-screen directions for importing an image from your hard drive, or Web site into the Puzzlemaker template. PuzzleMaker allows you to drag and drop the puzzle pieces into place to create your own puzzles. You can alter the number of puzzle pieces to make the puzzle more challenging. Zoom and crop the image to your liking, or even select a variety of puzzle shapes. Jigsaw Puzzlemaker© also allows you to send the puzzle to a friend. Complete online instructions are included. Have fun with this one.
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Seashell Collection - Seashells in the sand is another Jigsaw PuzzleMaker© puzzle created by Jim Collins and supported by Shockwave.com©. It was developed in response to an increased interest in seashell puzzles. This kitschy seashell motif is a real challenge to complete. The previous puzzle above and this one are both assembled using the same Macromedia© software. You may want to upgrade your Shockwave© software if you've not recently done so. We provide these links to Jigsaw PuzzleMaker© as a service to our visitors, but make no warranties for its operability, nor are we sponsored by Shockwave.com, or any of its affiliates. Allow time for this puzzle to load. It will be worth the wait. Enjoy spending a free moment winding down with a virtual seashell puzzle.
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BACKGROUND MUSIC Enjoy some music while exploring worldwideconchology.com

BACKGROUND MUSIC. Enhance your browsing experience with some MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) music. One of the best audio plug-ins for listening to MIDI music files is Crescendo MIDI Player, which currently is only available for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 versions of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Crescendo can be downloaded for free from their Web site. It is easy to install on your hard drive and then extract as a plug-in to your Web browser. If you are currently using the default Media Player for Windows, you may want to try the more full featured Crescendo MIDI Player. Allow a moment for the Music Window to load before playing your selections. Pleasant listening...

Click here for the music.

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