The Power Of One

摘要

Some 15 years ago, the well-known muricid expert Emily Vokes told me about one of her favorite collecting spots in Central America. It was a beach on the west coast of Nicaragua called Masachapa. What made this place interesting was that Anastasio Somoza, the former dictator of the country, had used the rocky area of the beach as a quarry, extracting blocks of coral rock to construct the country's roads. With time, all the nooks and crannies of the rectangular shapes left behind by the project were covered by moss and became a welcome habitat for micro-mollusks. I was so intrigued by Emily's narration that in August 1995, I decided to go and check out the place for myself.