The Ecphoras (ePub)

David P. Berschauer was born in Rockville Center, New York, in 1964, and spent his youth collecting shells in such varied localities as New York, Florida, California, Washington, Mexico, and throughout the Caribbean. His early interests in natural history, malacology, and marine biology eventually led to a BS in biology at the University of California-Irvine, an advanced marine invertebrate zoology course at Washington State University's Friday Harbor Marine Lab, and studies towards the pursuit of a graduate degree in marine biology at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. While still a college undergraduate, Berschauer performed field biology research, published a number of research papers and gave scientific presentations at national conferences. He subsequently witched career paths and attended Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, California, earning his Juris Doctorate in 1991. Although having developed a legal career spanning over thirty years and being licensed in both California and Georgia, he has kept malacology as a lifetime avocation and has put together a sizeable research collection and personal museum of molluscan specimens. Over his entire professional life, Berschauer continued to pursue his passion for marine biology, and collecting and studying marine organisms. In his spare time, he has developed and published a relational database software program to aid in the organization and maintenance of a systematic collection. Although originally designed for malacology, the program is applicable to entomology and other aspects of systematic zoology. Berschauer is an active member of the San Diego Shell Club, is a Museum Associate with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County ("LACM") Malacology Department, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, The Festivus. He is also well known for his natural history and shell photography, with a multitude of high-quality examples seen throughout this book. Besides being the author of many important scientific papers on molluscan systematics, Berschauer has described and named over 100 new species of gastropods and is also the co-author of several recent books on mollusks.