Triton's legacy

摘要

In Greek mythology, Triton was the son of Poseidon and Amphi-trite and, although he is thanked for calming seas and assisting sailors, he was actually quite a coxcomb, preferring to dance and play with the 50 Nereids and making beautiful sounds by blowing into seashells. Triton's name is given to a group of seashells belonging to the Ranellidae, which are a family of poorly understood marine gastropod predators and amongst which is the pan-tropical 'triton's'. Last year (2011), I was invited to participate in a research workshop based in a village, Mosteiros, on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. The Azores workshop was convened at the Casa do Pescador dos Mosteiros (the Mosteiros Fishermen's Club) and where, on the shelves of the little museum and in the village Cafe/Restaurant Ilheu, were 52 shells of the triton Charonia lampas of various sizes.