jul 2007
The quest goes on and the dilemma of the collector
31-07-2007 11:09
Last week I have also
continued the puzzling with "Simpulopsis"
dominicensis.
Another suggestion from Jozef Grego was that it could
be Orthosagda,
but after having checked the data in Schieleyko I'm
convinced that this is also a wrong track. So the
queeste goes on, till we have found the 'home'
of dominicensis.....
When I look at the anatomy and compare it to e.g. the just published work (in Arch. Moll.) of Laetitia da Silva and José Thomé on Simpulopsis decussatus from Brazil, I see more similarities than differences. But on the other hand I do see some differences that make me hesitant to be conclusive. Unfortunately the quality of the tissues is rather poor. My guess is that the animal after being collected was drawn too long in water before transferred to alcohol. That is most probably the same reason why DNA sequencing didn't yield results, given the strict conditions that are being put on the material. Quite a dilemma for the field collector when you are lucky enough to find one specimen: do I want to have a fully strechted animal, allowing for an easy dissection or do I put it directly in alcohol 96%, safeguarding DNA but probably jeopardizing anatomical research.
I put all pictures here (photos by courtesy of Jozef Grego) and if anybody has a good suggestion, it is always welcome.
When I look at the anatomy and compare it to e.g. the just published work (in Arch. Moll.) of Laetitia da Silva and José Thomé on Simpulopsis decussatus from Brazil, I see more similarities than differences. But on the other hand I do see some differences that make me hesitant to be conclusive. Unfortunately the quality of the tissues is rather poor. My guess is that the animal after being collected was drawn too long in water before transferred to alcohol. That is most probably the same reason why DNA sequencing didn't yield results, given the strict conditions that are being put on the material. Quite a dilemma for the field collector when you are lucky enough to find one specimen: do I want to have a fully strechted animal, allowing for an easy dissection or do I put it directly in alcohol 96%, safeguarding DNA but probably jeopardizing anatomical research.
I put all pictures here (photos by courtesy of Jozef Grego) and if anybody has a good suggestion, it is always welcome.
Holiday time
29-07-2007 11:51
One week off, this time
in France and no requests for collecting this time.
We are in the Loire region and I'm not expecting any
interesting species here. Besides, I don't know
anything about the French malacofauna... Oops! So far
I only saw many Arion (A.
rufus?) and
one Limax species.
Arion in love
Before we left, Frank Köhler very kindly sent me the proofs of his forthcoming paper on the types of Bulimulinae in the Berlin museum. He correctly notes that this collection has been virtually unaccessible since 1945, until the reunion of Germany in 1990. Back in the '70s I studied many types in European museums, but not those of the Humboldt Museum. It was therefore a big surprise to see the list of types from authors like e.g. Martens, Albers, Dunker, Dohrn, Strebel and Pfeiffer, with also material originating from the Cuming collection well represented and described by e.g. Sowerby, Preston and Reeve. All the species are well documented and figured, with most of them have an extensive annotation. This is a very useful and important paper!
Some weeks ago I accidentally saw the website of the Los Cedros Cloud Forest Reserve in northwestern Ecuador. A very interesting area, with an impressive biodiversity. Today I contacted the coordinator and learned that the malacofauna is still unknown, although he noted "there are three larger species, some medium and small. We have riverine crabs and a rat specializing in eating them". It would be nice to go there, perhaps together with others interested in cloud forest snails.
This is the picture that provoked my interest. It looks like a Plekocheilus species. Beautiful photograph...
Arion in love
Before we left, Frank Köhler very kindly sent me the proofs of his forthcoming paper on the types of Bulimulinae in the Berlin museum. He correctly notes that this collection has been virtually unaccessible since 1945, until the reunion of Germany in 1990. Back in the '70s I studied many types in European museums, but not those of the Humboldt Museum. It was therefore a big surprise to see the list of types from authors like e.g. Martens, Albers, Dunker, Dohrn, Strebel and Pfeiffer, with also material originating from the Cuming collection well represented and described by e.g. Sowerby, Preston and Reeve. All the species are well documented and figured, with most of them have an extensive annotation. This is a very useful and important paper!
Some weeks ago I accidentally saw the website of the Los Cedros Cloud Forest Reserve in northwestern Ecuador. A very interesting area, with an impressive biodiversity. Today I contacted the coordinator and learned that the malacofauna is still unknown, although he noted "there are three larger species, some medium and small. We have riverine crabs and a rat specializing in eating them". It would be nice to go there, perhaps together with others interested in cloud forest snails.
This is the picture that provoked my interest. It looks like a Plekocheilus species. Beautiful photograph...
The boost of WCM
24-07-2007 20:12
The WCM is over, but
has made me so energetic on malacology, that it is
hard to fulfill all my duties plus my household
chores. Several ideas have come to mind that need
careful consideration and a lot of elaboration. Over
the past few days I have sent a series of emails to
contacts from the WCM and to others, firing up some
of the ideas. As a result I got notice from Bogotá
that a Catalogue of Colombian land snails is ready
for review. A real pleasant surprise!
WCM - The balance
21-07-2007 22:59
The WCM is over and for
me it was an event that I would not have liked to
miss. The organization was superb, the venue was very
elegant and providing many of the delegates an
economic way of attending the congress. With more
than 275 presentations and nearly 200 posters there
was an impressive amount of information to choose
from.
Not having been at a malacological congress for 30 years, it was remarkable to see the shift in attention and the broad range of topics covered. Despite all the efforts during the past decades there is still a massive task to be done. At the end of the symposium on Inventorying the molluscan fauna of the world, it was guessed that still 40% of the species is undescribed. Discussing with some people about which areas could be considered as 'least known' as far as land snails are concerned, we agreed that New Guinea (and SE Asia in general) be given highest ranking.
I wonder what shifts in time could be seen in the delegate population according to interest group (marine / non-marine) and geographical background. At least I was glad that quite a number of delegates were present from Latin America.
Anyway, I think that Thierry Backeljau and his team deserve many compliments for organizing this great event.
Not having been at a malacological congress for 30 years, it was remarkable to see the shift in attention and the broad range of topics covered. Despite all the efforts during the past decades there is still a massive task to be done. At the end of the symposium on Inventorying the molluscan fauna of the world, it was guessed that still 40% of the species is undescribed. Discussing with some people about which areas could be considered as 'least known' as far as land snails are concerned, we agreed that New Guinea (and SE Asia in general) be given highest ranking.
I wonder what shifts in time could be seen in the delegate population according to interest group (marine / non-marine) and geographical background. At least I was glad that quite a number of delegates were present from Latin America.
Anyway, I think that Thierry Backeljau and his team deserve many compliments for organizing this great event.
WCM Day 4
19-07-2007 10:20
I tried to hunt on
several people who I liked to speak or connect with.
But I also had some unexpected talk. E.g. Frank
Köhler from the Humboldt Museum approached me,
telling that he had sorted out all the types and
typoids of Bulimulidae in the Berlin Museum. Quite a
sursprise to learn that this work was done (still
need to be published), obviously inspired by the
recent publication by Neubert & Janssen on the
Senckenberg material.
At last I had the opportunity to speak with Eike Neubert and to hear about his studies on Placostylus. From what he told me it sounds very reasonable to consider the Placostylids as a separate family, with two anatomical characters very different from the South American stock. He is still waiting for the finalization of the manuscript, but hopes to have it published within one year. Another thing he told me is that Bothriembryon is currently studied by Klaus Groh, who will describe many new species based on collections he made in conjunction with the previous WCM in Perth in 2004.
There was a nice presentation on illustrating and photographing of molluscs, in particular small bivalves, but with tips and tricks of general interest. They store the images in a library, which is in fact a Fliemaker Pro database.
The last presentation I heard was on molecular genetics of Stylommatophora by Cendrine Hudelot (the group of Wade and Mordan), with improved method (more species, additional gene) but more or less the same outcome and still a way to go to resolve the relationships between the different (groups of) families.
At last I had the opportunity to speak with Eike Neubert and to hear about his studies on Placostylus. From what he told me it sounds very reasonable to consider the Placostylids as a separate family, with two anatomical characters very different from the South American stock. He is still waiting for the finalization of the manuscript, but hopes to have it published within one year. Another thing he told me is that Bothriembryon is currently studied by Klaus Groh, who will describe many new species based on collections he made in conjunction with the previous WCM in Perth in 2004.
There was a nice presentation on illustrating and photographing of molluscs, in particular small bivalves, but with tips and tricks of general interest. They store the images in a library, which is in fact a Fliemaker Pro database.
The last presentation I heard was on molecular genetics of Stylommatophora by Cendrine Hudelot (the group of Wade and Mordan), with improved method (more species, additional gene) but more or less the same outcome and still a way to go to resolve the relationships between the different (groups of) families.
WCM Day 3
18-07-2007 21:44
This was the day for
going out in the field or making a city tour, in
short excursion day. However, instead of joining one
of the official tours, Francisco Borrero, Bernhard
Hausdorf, John Slapcinsky and I decided to go to
Leiden, where I showed them the collection of
Naturalis. Francisco wanted to see material of a lot
of Neotropical families, while John wanted to study
material from New Guinea, especially material that
Tera van Benthem Jutting had described, although most
of her type material is in Amsterdam.
I drove them up with my car, while reflecting on topics from the past days, exchanging experiences from collecting and curating, etc. Once in Leiden Francisco and John settled in the dry collection to photograph as much as they could. John said he was astonished to see how much material with exact locality data there was. I showed Bernhard around the alcohol collection, he dwelled in the dry collection and we discussed some topics about research, especially on Colombian land snails. It became clear that the Venezuelan project could be the best way to obtain funds for research or a grant for a student from Colombia. Bernhard also told me that the type material in his museum was lost during WW II, but that as far as he knew somehow the type material in Berlin survived the war.
A joint dinner topped off this very nice and fruitful day.
Left to right: John Slapcinsky, Bernhard Hausdorf and Francisco Borrero
I drove them up with my car, while reflecting on topics from the past days, exchanging experiences from collecting and curating, etc. Once in Leiden Francisco and John settled in the dry collection to photograph as much as they could. John said he was astonished to see how much material with exact locality data there was. I showed Bernhard around the alcohol collection, he dwelled in the dry collection and we discussed some topics about research, especially on Colombian land snails. It became clear that the Venezuelan project could be the best way to obtain funds for research or a grant for a student from Colombia. Bernhard also told me that the type material in his museum was lost during WW II, but that as far as he knew somehow the type material in Berlin survived the war.
A joint dinner topped off this very nice and fruitful day.
Left to right: John Slapcinsky, Bernhard Hausdorf and Francisco Borrero
WCM Day 2
17-07-2007 20:25
My day started on
'Molluscs as models in evolutionary biology', where
Matthias Glaubrecht gave an overview of the symposium
and put forward some general topics. I also heard the
keynote of the symposium, delivered by Suzanne
Williams on global patterns of diversity and
speciation in tropical marine molluscs. The
interesting thing was the way she had set up her
research and I should look up some references she
presented.
Philippe Bouchet, one of the 'grand old men', gave an update on inventorying the molluscan fauna, in which he concluded that now 80.000 species are known (of which 22.000 land snails) and the average number of new species per year is about 600 (only 7% Neotropical). The species-rich environments, like the tropics and the deep seas), receiving little attention, the lack of support to alpha-taxonomy leads to a 'taxonomic impediment'.
Dennis Uit de Weerd had a nice presentation on Urocoptidae, in which he sheds light on the phylogeography and evolution of the family. Also the rest of the Leiden collegues had their presentations. Arjan Gittenberger on his Ph.D. work and the relativety of molecular work, Bas Kokshoorn on his studies on Abida secale and Edi Gittenberger on the clausilium system of Greek Clausilidae. Finally I want to mention the very elegant presentation by Bernhard Hausdorf on radiation of Xerocrassa on Crete.
Finally, two presentations by John Slapcinsky on Papua New Guinea and Eike Neubert on the Middle East, clearly showed where some 'black boxes' of land snails can be found. Especially New Guinea is clearly an area where large areas are virtually unknown and lots of work remain to be done.
In the evening there was a poster session, with more than 200 posters displayed. As Ira Richling pointed out "she had never seen so many beautiful posters together on a congress".
I met Bernhard Hausdorf and discussed the progress of our work. We agreed to formulate some hypotheses to focus the search for additional material and to enhance the analyses. Also met Sonia Santos from Rio de Janeiro, who had an interesting poster on land snail diversity on Grande Island (formerly a prison island, now a biological station). She told me that there are several undescribed species at the island, which has a rather good preserved forest. She introduced me to Luiz Simone, the author of the recent published book on Brazilian and and freshwater snails. He did an awful lot of good work and I hope his book will stimulate the interest in Brazilian (and Neotropical) land molluscs.
Luiz Simone (l.) and Francisco Borrero (r.)
Philippe Bouchet, one of the 'grand old men', gave an update on inventorying the molluscan fauna, in which he concluded that now 80.000 species are known (of which 22.000 land snails) and the average number of new species per year is about 600 (only 7% Neotropical). The species-rich environments, like the tropics and the deep seas), receiving little attention, the lack of support to alpha-taxonomy leads to a 'taxonomic impediment'.
Dennis Uit de Weerd had a nice presentation on Urocoptidae, in which he sheds light on the phylogeography and evolution of the family. Also the rest of the Leiden collegues had their presentations. Arjan Gittenberger on his Ph.D. work and the relativety of molecular work, Bas Kokshoorn on his studies on Abida secale and Edi Gittenberger on the clausilium system of Greek Clausilidae. Finally I want to mention the very elegant presentation by Bernhard Hausdorf on radiation of Xerocrassa on Crete.
Finally, two presentations by John Slapcinsky on Papua New Guinea and Eike Neubert on the Middle East, clearly showed where some 'black boxes' of land snails can be found. Especially New Guinea is clearly an area where large areas are virtually unknown and lots of work remain to be done.
In the evening there was a poster session, with more than 200 posters displayed. As Ira Richling pointed out "she had never seen so many beautiful posters together on a congress".
I met Bernhard Hausdorf and discussed the progress of our work. We agreed to formulate some hypotheses to focus the search for additional material and to enhance the analyses. Also met Sonia Santos from Rio de Janeiro, who had an interesting poster on land snail diversity on Grande Island (formerly a prison island, now a biological station). She told me that there are several undescribed species at the island, which has a rather good preserved forest. She introduced me to Luiz Simone, the author of the recent published book on Brazilian and and freshwater snails. He did an awful lot of good work and I hope his book will stimulate the interest in Brazilian (and Neotropical) land molluscs.
Luiz Simone (l.) and Francisco Borrero (r.)
WCM Day 1
16-07-2007 14:38
The WCM brought more
than 430 malacologists from all over the world
together in Antwerp. A remarkable event and one not
to be missed once it is so close by...
The first day I started off by renewing some contacts and making some new ones, although there are some people still on my 'hit list' who I couldn't discover within the crowd filling the narrow corridors.
Regarding content, it was interesting to hear the lectures of several people in the Taxonomy stream. Dai Herbert had a nice presentation about Rhytididae from Madagascar, where he used a BEAST analysis to show that the taxon supposed to be a Rhytididid in fact was not. Interestingly he used a relaxed molecular clock with two nodes calibrated using geological data. Later I chatted with him about his Prestonella paper, which appear still to be worked upon after comments from one of the reviewers. He takes the opportunity to include comparison with sequences from Bothriembryon. We'll see the results in due time...
Francisco Borrero showed how there is still a lot of work to do on Neotropical land snails, using the Camaenidae as an example. We had emailed before so it really nice to meet him and I had a long chat over lunch sine we share the same interests and have some common acquaintances.
Another Latin American was Samira Guevara Muños with a poster on Helicinidae and Drymaeus from three different locations in eastern Peru. I met her incidentally when I was reading the poster text. She is currently in Germany, did her M.Sc. in Hamburg with Klaus Bandel and Bernhard Hausdorf.
Samira Guevara in front of her poster
Ira Richling had a nice presentation about Helicinidae from the Lesser Antilles, which shed a new light on the classification of Helicina and Alcadia. I have to speak with her about the geological data she showed about the area.
There were several examples of phylogenetics and phylogeography, amongst others from Meaghan Parker on Hawaiian Achatinellids. According to her CO1 should be appropriate to resolve the relations above the species level (genera and subfamilies). Have to check that.
The first day I started off by renewing some contacts and making some new ones, although there are some people still on my 'hit list' who I couldn't discover within the crowd filling the narrow corridors.
Regarding content, it was interesting to hear the lectures of several people in the Taxonomy stream. Dai Herbert had a nice presentation about Rhytididae from Madagascar, where he used a BEAST analysis to show that the taxon supposed to be a Rhytididid in fact was not. Interestingly he used a relaxed molecular clock with two nodes calibrated using geological data. Later I chatted with him about his Prestonella paper, which appear still to be worked upon after comments from one of the reviewers. He takes the opportunity to include comparison with sequences from Bothriembryon. We'll see the results in due time...
Francisco Borrero showed how there is still a lot of work to do on Neotropical land snails, using the Camaenidae as an example. We had emailed before so it really nice to meet him and I had a long chat over lunch sine we share the same interests and have some common acquaintances.
Another Latin American was Samira Guevara Muños with a poster on Helicinidae and Drymaeus from three different locations in eastern Peru. I met her incidentally when I was reading the poster text. She is currently in Germany, did her M.Sc. in Hamburg with Klaus Bandel and Bernhard Hausdorf.
Samira Guevara in front of her poster
Ira Richling had a nice presentation about Helicinidae from the Lesser Antilles, which shed a new light on the classification of Helicina and Alcadia. I have to speak with her about the geological data she showed about the area.
There were several examples of phylogenetics and phylogeography, amongst others from Meaghan Parker on Hawaiian Achatinellids. According to her CO1 should be appropriate to resolve the relations above the species level (genera and subfamilies). Have to check that.
Preparing for WCM
10-07-2007 17:23
Yesterday the programme
arrived for the World Congress on Malacology (WCM),
next week in Antwerp. It is like any other congress,
fully loaden with interesting lectures, a poster
session, excusrsions and as a finale the congress
dinner. There will be several parallel sessions,
devoted to topics like landsnail diversity,
phylogenetics and evolution, molluscs as models in
evolutionary biology, to name a few of my likings. I
have not counted the many posters that will be
presented, but it will certainly be impressive.
But what will be most important to me, is the chance to renew or establish contacts with malacologists from all over the world. I have been to a UNITAS congress before (in Amsterdam in the 1970's), but it is too long ago to be still meaningful. Judging from the list of contributors I expect some interesting people to meet. There will be even one lecture given dealing partly with bulimulids :-)
I'm looking forward to be part of the scene...
But what will be most important to me, is the chance to renew or establish contacts with malacologists from all over the world. I have been to a UNITAS congress before (in Amsterdam in the 1970's), but it is too long ago to be still meaningful. Judging from the list of contributors I expect some interesting people to meet. There will be even one lecture given dealing partly with bulimulids :-)
I'm looking forward to be part of the scene...
The Beast in snails
01-07-2007 20:07
Some time ago I got
aware of the software published by
Andrew
Rambaut.
It's very nicely done, as it is open source and
cross-platform. There are several packages, each
for a specific step in the workflow; the main step
is called Beast. Most is well documented, but it
is clearly a project in progress.
So far I've used it while I'm trying to fiddle around with some Nexus files that Bernhard Hausdorf sent me. From what I experience I feel that one should be reasonably seasoned in molecular genetics to make the best out of it. While I follow the (rather frequent) stream of Q&A on the Beast Mailing-list, I flatter myself with the knowledge that I'm not the only one who is struggling with all the nitty-gritty details that rule the software. Some day we'll overcome!
So far I've used it while I'm trying to fiddle around with some Nexus files that Bernhard Hausdorf sent me. From what I experience I feel that one should be reasonably seasoned in molecular genetics to make the best out of it. While I follow the (rather frequent) stream of Q&A on the Beast Mailing-list, I flatter myself with the knowledge that I'm not the only one who is struggling with all the nitty-gritty details that rule the software. Some day we'll overcome!