GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- University of Florida biologist Christopher Meyer (left) and zoologist Gustav Paulay examine cowries in the collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005. In a paper published in the December issue of PLOS Biology, the two scientists are the first to quantify the effectiveness of DNA barcoding among brightly colored shells. With an error rate as low as 4 percent, they have been able to identify cowries collected from around the world by analyzing tissue samples from the marine organisms and comparing them to a comprehensive catalog of species they compiled.