INHS Collections Data

Illinois Natural History Survey - Mollusk Collection (INHS-MOLLUSK)

The Illinois Natural History Survey Mollusk Collection is global in scope with over 135 countries represented and contains over 509,000 catalogued specimens in over 90,000 lots.

The collection is strong in freshwater mussels (Unionoida), freshwater and terrestrial snails from the Midwestern U.S. and cone shells (Conoidea). We also have strong holdings of freshwater bivalves and gastropods from the Southeastern U.S., Central, and South America. The collection is 57% bivalves, 41% gastropods, 2% other; 67% freshwater; 20% marine or brackish; 13% terrestrial.

Many of the specimens were collected as a result of various faunal surveys conducted by INHS biologists from the late 1800s until the present. The early collections were made by such naturalists as John Wesley Powell, Robert Kennicott, Frank C. Baker, Richard E. Call, Anson A. Hinkley, Max Matteson, and William Starrett. The largest and best documented collection of land snails at the INHS was compiled by Thural D. Foster and organized by Frank C. Baker as part of his study on the “Fieldbook of Illinois Land Snails” published in 1939. The Baker snail collection numbers 1632 lots containing 11,970 specimens.

Curator: Alison Stodola, alprice@illinois.edu
Collection Manager: Rachel Vinsel, rvinsel2@illinois.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 8 March 2024
Digital Metadata: EML File
Usage Rights: CC BY (Attribution)
Rights Holder: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
GBIF Dataset page: http://www.gbif.org/dataset/763f9aee-060c-4d71-a538-16c383e53a4d
Cite this collection:
Illinois Natural History Survey - Mollusk Collection. Occurrence dataset (ID: 016aa1cb-370a-43e5-a2aa-f3e7c14f94c2) https://biocoll.inhs.illinois.edu/portal/content/dwca/INHS-MOLLUSK_DwC-A.zip accessed via the INHS Collections Data Portal, biocoll.inhs.illinois.edu/portal, 2024-03-28).
Collection Statistics
  • 94,375 specimen records
  • 85,239 (90%) georeferenced
  • 4,848 (5%) with images (5,598 total images)
  • 71,233 (75%) identified to species
  • 331 families
  • 965 genera
  • 2,654 species
  • 2,665 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
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