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

该项目将支持完成费城自然科学院（ANSP）最近收集的软体动物的计算机化。这是这个国家最古老的软体动物收藏，也是世界上第二大的软体动物收藏。它目前有大约44万件已编目的藏品，包含大约1200万件标本，其中约4万件保存在酒精中，为解剖学和DNA研究提供了极好的材料。ANSP的标本几乎来自世界各地；对于来自热带印度洋-太平洋的浅水海洋软体动物来说，它是无与伦比的。其他优势是大西洋西部的浅水软体动物，以及世界各地的淡水和陆地软体动物。许多陆地和淡水软体动物代表了现在受到威胁、濒危或灭绝的物种。也许藏品中最重要的部分是来自400多名研究人员的12000件模式标本。这些是用来命名物种的标本；它们作为确认物种身份的比较标准。ANSP通过员工的研究活动以及150多年来的采购和贸易，已经汇集了世界上最大的软体动物类型标本收藏之一。世界各地的科学家都在使用这个收藏。在过去的五年中，共借出近300个标本，总计28,000多个标本，并有200多篇科学论文承认使用了馆藏资源。软体动物是研究生态系统健康的极好指标。它们是仅次于节肢动物的最多样化的动物门，有超过10万种，在陆地、淡水和海洋栖息地都很丰富。尽管软体动物的多样性不如节肢动物，但在环境研究方面，它们比节肢动物有三个优势。1)软体动物的壳是增生生长的，它们将环境中的同位素和化学物质吸收到壳中，从而提供了环境变化的直接记录。节肢动物蜕去了外骨骼，失去了这种变化的记录2)成年软体动物通常不善于分散，所以它们的外壳反映了当地的环境条件。软体动物的外壳在动物死后仍然存在，这表明在一个地点以前发生过什么物种，不像节肢动物的外骨骼会迅速腐烂。软体动物的高多样性、累积性生长、低分散性和持久性使其成为监测环境健康的首选生物。软体动物的壳本身为化学和同位素分析提供了材料，可以确定动物群变化的原因。收集的计算机化将有助于确定软体动物物种历史分布模式的变化。目前此类信息很少，但不仅是对软体动物进行基本系统和生态研究的科学家所需要的，而且是为监测生态系统健康提供基线数据所需要的。

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.