Land Snails
About Museum Records
Museum records used for land snail range mapping
Digital museum records were compiled from major institutions primarily in the Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest. Several museums’ records are now conveniently available online in standardized format at InvertEBase (2017).
The specimens upon which these records are based have not been inspected by the authors, and are taken at face value. There are various identification mistakes, taxonomic confusions, clerical slipups, and other sources of error in these records.
Nor does every museum have its entire mollusk collection digitized. Perhaps the biggest “hole” in these records are records from F. Wayne Grimm (1941-2005) collecting, except for Delmarva Peninsula records obtained by Tim Pearce. Grimm worked for many decades mostly in eastern North America. His specimens are well-protected at the Canadian Museum of Nature, but funding is needed to digitize the specimen labels.
Despite some challenges, our maps represent the largest compilation of Northeastern land snail specimen records. Land snail data will continue to improve as most of the participating museums are continually upgrading the accuracy and availability of their collection records.
Special thanks to Mark Siddall and Lily Berniker (AMNH), Paul Callomon and Steven Dilliplane (ANSP), Timothy A. Pearce (CMNH), Liz Shea and B. Alex Kittle (DMNH), Adam J. Baldinger and Brendan Haley (MCZ), Robert Hershler and William Moser (USNM), Mark Antonioni (NPS), and Taehwan Lee (UMMZ) for providing museum records.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) – Philadelphia, PA. - 6,433 Northeast land snail specimen records. All land snail museum records digitized. Paul Callomon, Collection Manager. http://www.ansp.org/research/systematics-evolution/collections/malacology
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) – New York, NY – 349 Northeast land snail specimen records. Approximately 1/3 of the collection is digitized. Mark Siddall, PhD, Curator, Annelida and Mollusca Collections. http://www.amnh.org/our-research/invertebrate-zoology/collections/mollusca
Buffalo Museum of Science (BMS) - Buffalo, NY - 137 land snail specimen records for New York State compiled from paper labels by Ken Hotopp in 2004. http://www.sciencebuff.org/site
California Academy of Sciences (CAS) – San Francisco, CA - 14 Northeast land snail specimen records. Records available online from InvertEBase. Christina Piotrowski, Collections Manager of Invertebrate Zoology. http://www.calacademy.org/scientists/invertebrate-zoology-geology
Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) – Pittsburgh, PA – 26,706 Northeast land snail specimen records. Most land snail records digitized and soon available online at InvertEBase. Timothy A. Pearce, PhD, Head, Section of Mollusks. http://www.carnegiemnh.org/mollusks/
Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN) – Ottawa, Ontario, CA – 1,419 Northeast (Delmarva) land snail specimen records. Delmarva records compiled from paper labels by Timothy A. Pearce in 1998-2000 visits. Jean-Marc Gagnon, PhD, Curator of Invertebrates. https://nature.ca/en/research-collections/collections/animals
Delaware Museum of Natural History (DMNH) – Wilmington, DE – 7,479 Northeast land snail specimen records. The entire land snail collection is digitized. Elizabeth Shea, PhD, Curator of Mollusks. http://www.delmnh.org/mollusks/
Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) – Chicago, IL – 8,704 Northeast land snail specimen records. All collection records are digitized and available from InvertEBase. Rudiger Bieler, Curator. https://www.fieldmuseum.org/node/5011
Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) – Gainesville, FL – 2,912 Northeast land snail specimen records. Records available online from InvertEBase. John Slapcinsky, Invertebrate Zoology Collections Manager. https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/malacology/
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCSM) – Raleigh, NC - 35 Northeast land snail specimen records. Records available online at InvertEBase. http://naturalsciences.org/research-collections/invertebrates-collection
Marshall University (MU) – Huntington, WV – 1,752 West Virginia land snail specimen records provided by Ralph Taylor in 2008
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Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) - 4,967 Northeast land snail specimen records. The entirety of mollusk collection records are digitized. Adam J. Baldinger, Collection Manager. http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/Departments/Malacology/index.html
National Park Service – National Capital Parks (NPS) – Washington, DC area - 360 Northeast land snail specimen records. These are land snail records from six capital region national parks courtesy of Mark Antonioni, NPS.
New York State Museum (NYSM) – Albany, NY – 1,113 land snail specimen records for New York State compiled from paper labels and new specimens by Ken Hotopp in 2004. Denise Mayer, PhD, Malacology Collections Manager and Director of the Museum’s Field Research Laboratory. http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/research-collections/biology/malacology
Ohio State University (OSU) – Columbus, OH - 3,156 Northeast land snail specimen records obtained by Timothy A. Pearce in 2010. G. Thomas Watters, Curator. http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~molluscs/OSUM2/
United States National Museum (USNM) – Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC – 6,565 Northeast land snail specimen records. Robert Hershler, PhD, Research Zoologist, Curator of Mollusca. http://invertebrates.si.edu/
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) – Ann Arbor, MI – 710 Northeast land snail specimen records. Taehwan Lee, PhD, Collection Manager and Research Scientist. https://lsa.umich.edu/ummz/mollusks.html
Yale University Peabody Museum (YPM) – New Haven, CT - 86 Northeast land snail specimen records. Records available online from InvertEBase. http://peabody.yale.edu/collections/invertebrate-zoology