This guide contains photos of nearly 800 species and is complete with up-to-date names and identification details. The shells in this book are listed alphabetically under their family name. Each photo is accompanied by four lines of text giving the scientific name and the name of the person who described it, the geographic range the shell can most readily be found at within New Zealand, and supplementary details such as dimensions, occurrence, locality, and identifying features. The books comes in a transparent plastic cover.