This website only contains historical information about Vita Marina,
a discontinued magazine on invertebrate Marine Biology.

For actual information on the malacological magazines Basteria, Vita Malacologica and the Spirula newsletter, as well as the actual Shellers directory and other services, please visit the website of the
Dutch Malacological Society: www.spirula.nl.

VITA MARINA *** Historical information under construction *** Vita Marina used to be a high quality quarterly magazine on marine zoology with strong emphasis on molluscs. Each issue is a collectors item with useful review articles of interesting groups of molluscs and many colour plates. Review issues published in the past include for instance worldwide Personidae, Harpidae, Hydatinas, Divaricellas, European Pectinidae, Australian Clanculus as well as interesting faunistic studies and field trip reports (click on contents for a complete listing). Each issue was like a high quality book on shells but for a much lower price! Please read the review we got in the American Conchologist. After a decision making process that the board of the Foundation Biologia Maritima - publisher of Vita Marina and Spirula - discussed over several sessions during the months November and December 2000, it was decided to stop the publication of Vita Marina after the 4th issue of volume 47 (published May 2001) and to continue with Spirula, the web page, the Snail Pack and special issues within the context of the Dutch Malacological Society. Spirula continues in a much more appealing style with more topical information and more fieldwork reports, also covering land snails. Have a look at www.spirula.nl for more information and membership info.

Newly described species

As an aid for the scientific community, this page contains several lists of shelled marine molluscan species described in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 (a separate page for each year). The lists are sorted alphabetically on family name, the same as in Spirula. If you find any omission in the lists, please use the entry form at the end of each page to add the information. By doing so, the data becomes available for other malacologists.

Leo's Cyber Shell Art Gallery

Leo Man in 't Veld is a Dutch artist, specialized in zoological objects. His portfolio includes scientific drawings of both habitus and anatomical parts of invertebrata (e.g. molluscs and crabs), cartoons, artistic impressions of shells and artistic composition of zoological expositions. If you look at the cartoon you see that even Leo believes that the Internet can't be ignored any longer....

Charlotte's Cyber Chiton Gallery

Charlotte Beunders is a Dutch artist from Amsterdam, who's work is inspired by objects related to biology. In some of her modern art you may recognize a set of microscopic slides and in other pieces you recognize a beatle depending on your frame of reference. In recent years she became particularly inspired by Chitons, the members of the molluscan class of Polyplacophora. If you click on her page you find five examples of her Chiton oil paintings.

Cooperation with the Dutch Malacological Society

In the beginning of 1997 the Dutch Malacological Society (NMV) and Vita Marina decided to cooperate more closely in the future in certain areas such as shell shows, field trips and workshops. Furthermore the editorial staffs of Basteria (published by the NMV) and Vita Marina, as well as the boards of both organisations came together on a regular basis to discuss the contents of the magazines and shared policies.
On this page you find information on the NMV, their publications, services and field trips.

© Biologia Maritima 1996-2006. All Rights Reserved.
Vita Marina was a publication of Biologia Maritima, a non-profit foundation that aimed to stimulate interest, knowledge exchange and research on marine malacology.
E-mail: spirula@wxs.nl - WWW: http://home.wxs.nl/~spirula