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There is some confusion among collectors what the deal is with the famous dani. I was repeatedly asked to put "something" up on my website. This is more important than ever, first, because the mysterious dani has just been collected in certain numbers and secondly, a lot of people get taken by dealers selling "wished it was" dani. Let me summarize the bits I know: At the time of the original description, two or three shells were known only. These were described and compared with dayritiana. The main differences to dayritiana are the long, dense teeth and the callused, inflated shell coarser, almost melanistic pattern. Four years ago I found a specimen corresponding to dani labelled "South Palawan" in an old collection and sold it through my auction. That shell has extremely long and dense teeth and produced extremities. Furthermore, the columellar teeth extend far into the shell. I have not yet seen another specimen matching it. No new specimens came to light, only occasional aberrant "wished it was"- specimens of dayritiana made it into the collections.  Then, early 2007, about a dozen specimens perfectly matching the dani-holotype were collected at approximately 20 m somewhere near Balabac Island, in the south of Palawan. Typical dayritiana were then known only from the Coron Sea towards the north of the island. With those few typical dani, a few hundred dayritiana from a new area in the south of Palawan turned up, some of them with exceptionally long teeth and callused shells, somewhat resembling dani. In the following months, the few true dani were marketed at high prices, and some of the "could-be dani"- dayritianas were also advertised. The true dani is a very humped, rather impressive shell that cannot be confused with these, but the features seem to be gradual and not supporting dani as a good species. However, the new dayritiana-population has certain differences to the classic Coron Sea-specimens: more callused on average, teeth sometimes much longer and rather coarse mottling. I purchased approximately 200 specimens of them but could not find enough consistency in those features for creating a new form or subspecies, also because the exact provenance is not disclosed. Finally, there is the single shell I had on my auction, which does not resemble exactly the new batch of true dani, and no other dayritiana either. However, also the data this shell came with stated "South Palawan", which seems to be the area in which further search should be conducted. For sure, Palawan is a very poorly known place in terms of seashells. Hopefully more specimens will turn up while the collecting is intensified. At this point, it seems too early to draw any conclusions on the status of the name dani. My gut-feeling is that the few specimens of the "true" dani represent attractive and certainly valuable extremes of the range of variation of dayritiana, which itself is obviously far more variable and widespread than formerly thought. Whether these extremes are the result of commercial selection or ecological conditions will certainly be clarified as we proceed...        |