“Western Atlantic Bivalves” (ver. 1) presents a research and educational resource on the Recent marine bivalves of the western Atlantic, ranging from Greenland to Cape Horn and from intertidal to abyssal depths. It is intended as a research tool, primarily serving systematics, but with immediate applications to ecology, environmental science, and parataxonomy. To this extent, it also serves as a catalog and identification tool.

Beginning from a phylogenetic family list, the user can access an alphabetical species list for each family, complete with recognized synonyms and other non-current names. Valid names appear in their most recent form, while synonyms are in their original form (including original capitalization, hyphenation, etc.). Any valid name that is “blue-lined” is more fully presented as a series of species-level webpages providing an image of the fully-adult shell, taxonomic information (original citation, scan of the original description [if allowed by copyright law], type locality, deposition of type material), recognized synonyms, a distributional map, key characters, images of a growth series, synonyms, common names, and reference to published works of significance. Blue-lined synonyms lead to pages restricted to taxonomic information only. Comments are welcome (pmikkelsen@fieldmuseum.org ).

BACKGROUND

In 1988, the book Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Mollusks was published by the American Fisheries Society in association with the American Malacological Union, now American Malacological Society. The expanded second edition in 1998 appeared under a slightly different authorship (though still with Donna D. Turgeon as senior author) and included, as is AFS custom, detailed notes explaining the published basis of any change since the first edition. Although aimed in large part at stabilizing common names of aquatic invertebrates for non-academic uses (e.g., for legislation, conservation, etc.), this list has shown arguably greater utility as a faunal checklist within the AFS-determined geographic and depth limits.

Eastern Pacific bivalves in "the Common Names list" have rested from the onset in the expert hands of Eugene V. Coan (Palo Alto, California ), who has published numerous taxonomic revisions of that fauna. However, western Atlantic bivalves were less rigorously researched, with those in the first edition largely lifted from Abbott's American Seashells (2nd ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1974) with very few additions. For the second edition in 1998, Paula M. Mikkelsen (American Museum of Natural History) assumed duties as western Atlantic bivalve editor, and substantially improved this part of the list through more thorough coverage of the literature. The third edition began preparation in Summer 2004.

“Western Atlantic Bivalves” is an elaboration of the western Atlantic half of the 1998 AFS checklist. It removes two limitations of that list, namely, the 200-ft depth limit, to include deep-water species, and all geographical boundaries, to include all species that could be construed as "western Atlantic," from Greenland to Cape Horn. It also includes synonyms, misspellings, and names applied in error.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND SUPPORT

“Western Atlantic Bivalves” was first launched on 19 November 2004. It should be cited as: Mikkelsen, Paula M. 2004. Western Atlantic Bivalves, ver. 1. http://peet.amnh.org/Western_Atlantic_Bivalves.html, accessed {date}. The date should be taken as the “last updated” date at the bottom of this introductory page.

This list is a product of NSF award DEB/PEET-9978119 to Rüdiger Bieler (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago) and Paula M. Mikkelsen (American Museum of Natural History, New York). The assistance of M. Coppolino, J. Sigwart, J. Biederman, L. Becker, S. Hewitt, M. Gerstenhaber, and J. Miyamae (under the 2002 AMNH Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program) is gratefully acknowledged.

This list and its linked pages are a work in progress, and updates are expected to be frequent. Any comments, additions or suggestions are welcome and should be directed to Paula M. Mikkelsen <pmikkelsen@fieldmuseum.org >.

Last revised: 14 June 2006

Page design: Marla L. Coppolino