Sources of Specimen 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 through data aggregators such as InvertEBase.org and GBIF.org.
In most cases, the specimens upon which these records are based have not been inspected by the authors and are taken at face value. While we tried to scrutinize suspicious records, there are likely to be identification mistakes, taxonomic confusions, and other sources of error in these records.
New records can become available through recent survey work, as well as records from decades past as museums continue to digitize their mollusk collections. Land snail data will continue to improve as museums continually upgrade the accuracy and availability of their collection records. Over the past decade, digital records have become available through efforts such as iNaturalist (more than 2,300 records for this project). Although important features of the specimen cannot always be seen the digital records, these digital records are a valuable resource for tracking rare and introduced species.
Special thanks to museums who provided specimen records. In particular we thank Mark Siddall and Lily Berniker (AMNH), Paul Callomon and Steven Dilliplane (ANSP), Liz Shea and B. Alex Kittle (DMNS), 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. – more than 6,000 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 – more than 600 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 – more than 100 land snail specimen records for New York State compiled from paper labels by Ken Hotopp in 2004. http://www.sciencebuff.org/site
Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) – Pittsburgh, PA – more than 28,000 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 – more than 1300 Northeast (Delmarva) land snail specimen records including more than 500 Delmarva records from F. Wayne Grimm 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
Craig Stihler personal collection – more than 5.300 land snail records.
Delaware Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) – Wilmington, DE – more than 7,200 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 – more than 8,800 Northeast land snail specimen records. All collection records are digitized and available from InvertEBase. Rudiger Bieler, Curator. https://www.fieldmuseum.org/node/5011
University of Florida (UF) – Gainesville, FL – more than 5,200 Northeast land snail specimen records. Records available online from InvertEBase. John Slapcinsky, Invertebrate Zoology Collections Manager. https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/malacology/
Jeff Nekola personal collection – more than 2,000 land snail records.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCSM) – Raleigh, NC – more than 40 Northeast land snail specimen records. Records available online at InvertEBase. http://naturalsciences.org/research-collections/invertebrates-collection
Marshall University (MU) – Huntington, WV – more than 800 West Virginia land snail specimen records provided by Ralph Taylor in 2008
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Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) – more than 4,700 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 – more than 300 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 – more than 260 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 – more than 3000 Northeast land snail specimen records obtained by Timothy A. Pearce in 2010. G. Thomas Watters, Curator. http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~molluscs/OSUM2/
National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) – Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC – more than 2800 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 – more than 900 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 – more than 780 Northeast land snail specimen records. Records available online from InvertEBase. http://peabody.yale.edu/collections/invertebrate-zoology
