For the first time all 6,500 known species of marine mollusks living in the waters adjacent to North America are listed, and over 3,000 kinds are illustrated and described in detail. Over 14,000 items are indexed. There are more than 4,000 black and white illustrations and twenty-four magnificent color plates. Dedicated amateur collectors will now find names for the rarest shells — as well as all the common ones. From the geographical distributions and bathymetric ranges given for each species, collectors may now predict what kind of shells they are likely to find from Quebec to Texas or from Alaska to the Gulf of California. The professional malacologist and serious amateur shell collector will appreciate the monographic reviews, the identification keys, and the updated nomenclature. The second edition is considerably upgraded in technical treatment, and is now an even more useful research tool in shellfishery studies, anti-pollution investigations and marshland conservation projects. Besides its value to the research worker in marine mollusks, it will serve as source material for the marine geologist, the ecologist, the oceanographer, the zoologist, the taxonomist, scientists, and the amateur shell collector. This is an essential addition to natural history museum libraries, public libraries, and marine station reference rooms. Furthermore, every college and university offering courses in marine biology, marine ecology, paleontology, or wetlands conservation will find the second edition of American Seashells an unparalleled source of information.