Computerization of Mollusk Collections at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

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This project will support completion of computerization of the recent mollusk collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP). This is the oldest mollusk collections in the country, and the and the second largest catalogued one in the world. It currently has about 440,000 catalogued lots containing about 12 million specimens, including about 40,000 lots preserved in alcohol that provide excellent material for anatomical and DNA studies. ANSP has specimens from virtually all parts of the world; it is unrivaled for shallow-water marine mollusks from the tropical Indo-Pacific. Other strengths are shallow-water Western Atlantic mollusks, and worldwide freshwater and land molluasks. Many of the land and freshwater mollusks represent species now threatened, endangered or extinct. Perhaps the most important part of the collection is the12,000 lots of type specimens from more than 400 researchers. These are the specimens used in the naming of species; they serve as standards of comparison for confirming the species identities. ANSP through the research activities of staff and purchase and trade over more than 150 years has assembled one of the world's largest collections of molluscan type specimens. The collection is used by scientists throughout the world. In the past five years, almost 300 loans totaling more than 28,000 specimens have been made, and more than 200 scientific article have acknowledged use of collection resources. Mollusks are excellent indicators for studying the health of ecosystems. They comprise the most diverse animal phylum after the arthropods, with more than 100,000 species, and are abundant in terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats. Although less diverse than arthropods, mollusks have three advantages over them for environmental studies. 1) Mollusk shells have accretionary growth, and incorporate isotopes and chemicals from the environment into their shells thereby providing a direct record of environmenta l change. Arthropods shed the exoskeleton, losing this record of change 2) Adult mollusks are generally poor at dispersing, so their shells reflect local environmental conditions. 3) Mollusk shells persist after the death of the animal, showing what species previously occurred at a site, unlike arthropod exoskeletons which rapidly decay. High diversity, accretionary growth, low dispersal, and persistence of shells combine to make mollusks premier organisms for monitoring environmental health. Mollusk shells themselves provide the materials for chemical and isotopic analyses that can determine causes of faunal change. Computerization of the collections will help in determining changes in the historical distribution patterns of mollusk species. Little such information is currently available, but is needed not only by scientists conducting basic systematic and ecological research on mollusks, but to provide baseline data for monitoring the health of ecosystems.