Cau del Cargol

Last updated
Museu del Cau del Cargol Catalonia VilassarDeDalt CaudelCargol Exterior.JPG
Museu del Cau del Cargol

The Cau del Cargol Shells of the World Museum is a museum containing a large private collection of shells; it is situated in Vilassar de Dalt (Catalonia, Spain). The collection includes over 16,000 worldwide species of mollusc shells, from marine, terrestrial and freshwater habitats. The museum was created in the year 1950, when its founder Jaume Bot i Arenas (1904-1983), started to exhibit his own collection to the public. Later he expanded his collection by acquiring other people's collections. He was able to reunite the collections of several different naturalists; material that had been collected from 1850 to 1983.

Contents

The Cau del Cargol museum houses one of the biggest shell collections that is open to the public. About one thousand shell specimens are displayed in a room which has been recently renovated. The museum is often visited by classes from regional schools that are studying natural history and zoology.

The museum is open to visitors on the first Sunday of every month, from 11 am to 2 pm, and at other times by special request.

Contents

Shells that can be seen in Cau del Cargol are terrestrial mollusca, marine and freshwater or brackish. Just as in nature, most of the collection are marine species. Shells exhibits are grouped with biogeographic criteria. Thus, grouped into 16 zoogeogràfical marine regions defined in the 19th century by SP Woodward, geologist and professor of natural history in his studies of Malacology. These regions based on zoogeography are characterized by the presence of certain species that unit them and at the same time, put them apart from those from other areas. The criterion of geographical grouping of units exposed favors contemplation of the exhibition as a journey around the world through the shells.

In the same room where shells are exposed, there are eight permanent panels that invite to the reflection on the world of form and color in nature. The panels explain that the world of form and color does not exist nor can be understood without the scope of invisible energy fields. They also invite us to think on the way we perceive the world and the relationship between power and scope of consciousness. [1] [2]

Topics

The museum covers the following topics:

  1. Shapes and colors, where shapes and colors are introduced to a language of nature.
  2. Unity in diversity, diversity in explaining the workings of the Earth with references to James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis.
  3. From the infinitely small to the infinitely present, which explains the changes in the vision of biology and life arising from discoveries of quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
  4. Energy fields and morphic fields , which explains morphogenetic fields described by English biologist Rupert Sheldrake.
  5. Relationships and proportions in the world of form, which entered the study and meaning of proportions and the golden section in nature and in man, and Leonardo da Vinci some thoughts on the subject.
  6. Water and spiral, which explains the relationship between water and the expansion of the spiral of life.
  7. Natural History and Culture, which highlights the impact that culture has on the dominant scientific interpretation of nature and introduces some thoughts on Albert Einstein's scientific attitude.
  8. Perception and intuition, which invites to think on the way we perceive the world and life.

See also

41°31′0.64″N2°21′26.64″E / 41.5168444°N 2.3574000°E / 41.5168444; 2.3574000

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malacology</span> Study of the Mollusca

Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca, the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, and cephalopods, along with numerous other kinds, many of which have shells. Malacology derives from Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós) 'soft', and -λογία (-logía).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conchology</span> Study of mollusc shells

Conchology is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includes the study of land and freshwater mollusc shells as well as seashells and extends to the study of a gastropod's operculum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vilassar de Dalt</span> Municipality in Catalonia, Spain

Vilassar de Dalt is a village in Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona and the comarca of Maresme. The name comes from the Roman name Villa Azari, later changed to Vilassar. In the 20th century, it split into two villages: Vilassar in the hills, and Vilassar by the Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geerat J. Vermeij</span> Dutch geology professor and malacologist

Geerat J. Vermeij is a Dutch-born paleoecologist and evolutionary biologist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He studies marine molluscs, both as fossils and as living creatures, as well as influence creatures have on each other's evolutionary fates, alongside having worked on plants, crabs, extinction, biological invasions, and biogeography. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992, and in 2000, was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. He was also a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 1992 and was awarded the Fellows Medal from the California Academy of Sciences in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vilafranca del Penedès</span> Municipality in Catalonia, Spain

Vilafranca del Penedès, or simply Vilafranca, is the capital of Alt Penedès county in Penedès, Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the Penedès Depression on the left bank of the Foix River, and on the main axis of communication from Barcelona to Tarragona and Valencia, served by a Rodalies Barcelona line 4 and by the AP-7 autopista as well as by the C-243 towards Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, and C-15 roads to Vilanova i la Geltrú and Igualada respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argentona</span> Municipality in Catalonia, Spain

Argentona is a municipality in the comarca of the Maresme in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the south-east side of the granite Litoral range, to the north-west of Mataró. The town is both a tourist centre and a notable horticultural centre. A local road links the municipality with Cabrera de Mar and with the main N-II road at Vilassar de Mar.

Robert Tucker Abbott was an American conchologist (seashells) and malacologist (molluscs). He was the author of more than 30 books on malacology, which have been translated into many languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mundet station</span> Metro station in Barcelona, Spain

Mundet is a Barcelona Metro station, in the Horta-Guinardó district of Barcelona, which takes its name from the Recinte Mundet, an adjacent area that now houses a campus of the University of Barcelona. The station is served by line L3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chilean National Museum of Natural History</span> Natural history museum in Santiago, Chile

The Chilean National Museum of Natural History is one of three national museums in Chile, along with the Museum of Fine Arts and the National History Museum. It is located in Quinta Normal Park. Founded on September 14, 1830 by the French naturalist Claudio Gay, the director of the Museum and the Botanical garden was another Frenchman Jean-François Dauxion-Lavaysse.

George Alan Solem, known professionally as Alan Solem, was an American malacologist, a biologist who studied mollusks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William E. Old Jr.</span>

William Erwood Old Jr. usually known as Bill Old, was an American malacologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Bouchet</span> French biologist

Philippe Bouchet is a French biologist whose primary scientific fields of study are malacology and taxonomy. He works at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He is also a Commissioner of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Strebel</span>

Hermann Wilhelm Strebel was a merchant, ethnologue and a malacologist from Germany and Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoichirō Hirase</span> Japanese malacologist and business man

Yoichirō Hirase was a Japanese malacologist and business man. His son, Shintarō Hirase, (1884-1939) was also a malacologist. The majority of his collection of molluscs were destroyed during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barcelona Provincial Council Local Museum Network</span>

The Barcelona Provincial Council Local Museum Network, also known as Catalonia’s Biggest Museum, is a tool for support and collaboration from and for the museums of the province, which makes available to municipalities a series of services and actions aimed at improving, through the provision of direct services and research into viable formulas for supramunicipal cooperation, the management, conservation and dissemination of heritage and the museum facilities of the towns of Barcelona province. It is managed from the Cultural Heritage Office, which in turn depends on the Department of Knowledge and New Technologies of Barcelona Provincial Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vilassar de Dalt Archive-Museum</span>

The purpose of the Vilassar de Dalt Archive-Museum is the conservation and dissemination of the archaeological, architectural, historical, natural and cultural heritage of Vilassar de Dalt and its environment. Located in the Can Banús farmhouse, records for which date back as far as the 14th century, its main collection can be broken down into four categories: archaeology, textiles, history and the historic archive.

The Vilassar de Mar Municipal Museum is a local museum in Vilassar de Mar comprising two facilities: The Marina Museum, focusing on local history and placing special emphasis on its connection with the nautical world, and the Monjo Museum, which tells the story behind the legacy of Vilassar de Mar sculptor Enric Monjo.

Angeline Myra Keen (1905–1986) was an American malacologist and invertebrate paleontologist. She was an expert on the evolution of marine mollusks. With a PhD in psychology. Keen went from being a volunteer, identifying shells at Stanford, and having no formal training in biology or geology, to being one of the world's foremost malacologists. She was called the "First Lady of Malacology".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleix Clapés</span> Spanish painter (1846–1920)

Alex Clapés was a Catalan modernisme artist. He was one of the less known painters in the late 19th century and early 20th century in Catalonia, Spain. He was born in Vilassar de Dalt on September 10, 1850. He died in Barcelona in 1920. He is most known for performing some commissions for the Güell family, thanks to his friend and colleague, Antoni Gaudí.

The Archive of the Marquises of Santa Maria de Barberà (AMSMB) is the most important heritage archive in Catalonia, located in the castle of the Marquises of Santa Maria de Barberà in Vilassar de Dalt, Spain.

References

  1. Note at Ajuntament de Vilassar de Dalt Archived 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 18 June 2015, (Catalan) Edited by Ajuntament de Vilassar de Dalt on date 16-1-2009
  2. Institució Catalana d'Història Natural Archived 2015-06-18 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 18 June 2015,(in Catalan) Edited by Institut d'Estudis Catalans date 16-3-2015