Although some marine mollusks are widely distributed by planktonic
larvae or adults, direct developers and non-marine mollusks often have
unappreciated diversity, which is fairly obvious in hindsight in light
of the barriers to dispersal.  Several non-marine mollusks have
probably been wiped out before they were recognized due to the
complete destruction of their habitat (modification or pollution of a
river or spring, mining out limestone habitat, etc.).

On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 1:02 AM, Alan Kohn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Steve Rosenthal also makes a good point. I just checked the acknowledgment
> list for my current project. It includes more than 30 amateurs who provided
> shells, preserved specimens, photos for publication, and important
> information.
>
> Alan
>
> Alan
>
>
> On Wed, 2 May 2012, steve rosenthal wrote:
>
>> also, another example where specimens or data collected/contributed by
>> amateurs as well as professionals proved useful in ways that were hard
>> to foresee at the time of collection...
>>
>> On 5/2/12, Alan Kohn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> It's very pertinent!! To err is human... We all make mistakes. But this
>>> study demonstrates a great advantage of the scientific method: It is
>>> self-correcting.
>>>
>>> Here's a molluscan example involving a glaring error we (myself and Tom
>>> Duda) made in a 2005 publication (Molecular Phylogentics and Evolution,
>>> 34:
>>> 257-272). We had the taxonomy correct, but not the phylogenetic
>>> relationship. We still don't really know what went wrong but our results
>>> showed that Conus furvus and C. litteratus are very closely related
>>> species
>>> on the phylogenetic tree. It didn't take very long for Espino et al. (The
>>> Nautilus, 122:143-150, 2008) to convince us, with a combination of
>>> molecular
>>> and behavioral data, that this is quite erroneous and that C. furvus is
>>> much
>>> more closely related to the other molluscivorous species than to the
>>> worm-eating C. litteratus.
>>>
>>> For both skinks and snails, we at least have a better chance of
>>> protecting
>>> what we know is there than what we don't know is there.
>>>
>>> Alan
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "John Wolff" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 11:44 AM
>>> Subject: [CONCH-L] OT - Skink taxonomy
>>>
>>>
>>>> Off topic, but pertinent anyhow.
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>> Lancaster, PA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/a-taxonomic-error-reversed-decades-too-late/?src=rechp
>>>>
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--
Dr. David Campbell
Collections Assistant
The Paleontological Research Institution
1259 Trumansburg Road
Ithaca NY 14850

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