Rizal's Conchology

The author surveyed several kilometers of Dapitan's coastline and creeks as Jose Rizal once did. Dapitan has extremely high diversity of molluscs, which the author estimates at 5.5 on the Shannon index. Despite the occasional abuse of its environment the mollusc diversity is the core of the Dapitan's ecological resilience. This book gives descriptions, full-color photographs, and anecdotes on the mollusc shells that Dr. Jose Rizal collected while he lived the life of an exile in Dapitan (1892-1896). That Rizal tried to write a formal treatise on shells may be construed from an unfinished 5-page manuscript, the original of which was in the custody of one of his nephews, Dr. Leoncio Lopez.