- Sanibel, Florida, United States
José H. Leal
The Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum, Collection / Research, Department Member
- Marine Biology and Fisheries, Paleontology, Biomechanics, Deep-Sea, Biogeography, Malacology, and 16 moreEducation, Systematics (Taxonomy), Zoology, Invertebrate Zoology, Mollusca, South Western Atlantic Ocean, Dilemma, Collections, Gastropods, Molluscan Biology, Mollusc Taxonomy, Bivalves, Natural History, Bioindicators, New Species, and Taxonomyedit
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This article lists and comments on the primary and secondary types represented in the collection of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum (BMSM), on Sanibel, Florida, USA. The collection includes 464 type specimens, of which 15 are... more
This article lists and comments on the primary and secondary types represented in the collection of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum (BMSM), on Sanibel, Florida, USA. The collection includes 464 type specimens, of which 15 are holotypes, representing 149 taxa, of which 145 are species and four subspecies. The BMSM collection is fully catalogued and posted online via the Museum’s website, in addition to iDigBio and GBIF. The publication of this annotated list intends to improve on the accessibility and promote this important group of name-bearing specimens, which includes, among other cases, types originating from orphaned collections and material poorly documented in the original descriptions. Eighty-two types were selected for illustration, and the photos of all BMSM types are available as part of the BMSM online collection catalog.
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This article lists and comments on the primary and secondary types represented in the collection of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum (BMSM), on Sanibel, Florida, USA. The collection includes 464 type specimens, of which 15 are... more
This article lists and comments on the primary and secondary types represented in the collection of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum (BMSM), on Sanibel, Florida, USA. The collection includes 464 type specimens, of which 15 are holotypes, representing 149 taxa, of which 145 are species and four subspecies. The BMSM collection is fully catalogued and posted online via the Museum’s website, in addition to iDigBio and GBIF. The publication of this annotated list intends to improve on the accessibility and promote this important group of name-bearing specimens, which includes, among other cases, types originating from orphaned collections and material poorly documented in the original descriptions. Eighty-two types were selected for illustration, and the photos of all BMSM types are available as part of the BMSM online collection catalog.
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We record for the first time a strike by the volutid Scaphella junonia (Lamarck, 1804) on its preferred prey, the lettered olive, Americoliva sayana (Ravenel, 1834), and the ensuing reaction of the latter to the attack.
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BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to... more
BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research.
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In the hyperdiverse neogastropod genus Conus, most of the ~700 extant species whose diets in nature are known are rather specialized predators on marine worms, mainly polychaete annelids, that they paralyze with neurotoxic venoms and then... more
In the hyperdiverse neogastropod genus Conus, most of the ~700 extant species whose diets in nature are known are rather specialized predators on marine worms, mainly polychaete annelids, that they paralyze with neurotoxic venoms and then swallow whole. These vermivorous species are scattered throughout recent species-level molecular phylogenetic trees that currently include about half of the known species. This and other phylogenetic evidence indicates that vermivory is likely the primitive feeding mode in the genus. The remaining approximately 20% of species mainly comprise two other feeding guilds, specializing on fishes and on other gastropods as prey. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that piscivory originated several times in the evolutionary history of Conus, while molluscivory arose only once. Present molecular genetic data indicate that all known specialist molluscivorous species are more closely related to each other than to any species outside their large clade. The similarities in several life history characteristics of Conus spurius described in the previous presentation motivated us to examine its other morphological and phylogenetic attributes for evidence relevant to the hypothesis that it or a close ancestor also gave rise to the modern molluscivorous Conus clade. In addition to similarities in veliconcha morphology and developmental mode, the following attributes are also consistent with that hypothesis: egg mass type, adult radular tooth morphometry, phylogenetic position, and age of earliest fossil records. The monophyletic clade of extant molluscivorous Conus species may have evolved in the Miocene from a vermivore or mixed vermivorous-molluscivorous ancestor with these attributes, such as C. spurius.
The veliconcha larva of the predatory gastropod Conus spurius Gmelin, 1791 is described and for the first time illustrated based on material from Sanibel Island, Florida. Hatchling veliconchas were 1470–1570 µm (mean = 1530) long, with... more
The veliconcha larva of the predatory gastropod Conus spurius Gmelin, 1791 is described and for the first time illustrated based on material from Sanibel Island, Florida. Hatchling veliconchas were 1470–1570 µm (mean = 1530) long, with first protoconch whorl maximum diameter 670–740 µm (mean = 710), and estimated egg diameter 570 µm. Veliconchas can swim for a few minutes to a few hours before settling. They have well-developed paired velar lobes each 600–700 µm in length, an extensible foot with a distinct metapodium separated from the remainder of the foot by a transverse fold, and operculum. Several early life history traits of C. spurius, particularly hatching as large veliconcha larvae with predominantly lecithotrophic, nearly non-planktonic development, closely resemble those of a well-defined clade of Conus species that prey on other gastropods. They contrast with the majority of species in this hyperdiverse genus, which hatch as much smaller planktonic, obligatory planktotrophic veliger larvae. Recent molecular phylogenetic trees suggest that the characters " pelagic development " and " non-pelagic development " (or nearly so: <1 day) are distributed independently of phylogeny in the larger clade that includes C. spurius and the molluscivorous species.
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The distribution and biogeography of marine prosobranch gastropods from four oceanic islands and six seamounts off Brazil are investigated. The study is founded on an inventory of all Recent species known to occur in Atol das Rocas,... more
The distribution and biogeography of marine prosobranch gastropods from four oceanic islands and six seamounts off Brazil are investigated. The study is founded on an inventory of all Recent species known to occur in Atol das Rocas, Fernando de Noronha, Trindade and Martin Vaz Islands and the seamounts at the Vit6ria-Trindade Seamount Chain, and deposited in several collections in Brazil, the U.S. and abroad. The species composition was determined for each island, and the relationships among assemblages from each island, and between islands and those from other land masses investigated. Evaluation of the modes of development in insular species made it possible to determine whether the assemblages are dominated by species with particular developmental strategies allowing for selective larval dispersal and eventual colonization of insular habitats. A total of 297 species was examined, equivalent to about 40 % of the number of species known from the Brazilian coast. Cluster analyses of similarity indicate that assemblages from Rocas and Noronha are more related to each other than to those of any other study locality, probably due to geographic proximity and some ecological affinities. Similarities also suggest that, at the seamount chain, a 'stepping stones' effect should occur among the seamounts close to coast. The total number of species decreases with distance from the coast along the chain. Rates of endemisrn are relatively high (9 to 16 %) in the four islands, in spite of their young age and small insular areas. Similar values were determined for exclusively Brazilian species present in the islands. Vl7idely distributed western Atlantic tropical species are prevalent in each of the four islands. Species present in biogeographic units other than the western Atlantic were poorly represented. The effectiveness of a mid-Atlantic barrier is confirmed by small percentages of amphi-Atlantic species, and by reduced similarities between study localities and Ascension Island. Frequencies of planktotrophic species among islands and seamounts were not significantly different from those with lecithotrophic development, suggesting that distances are not large enough to constitute a filter in regard to developmental strategies. However, species with broad, extra-western Atlantic distribution present in the four islands were preponderantly planktotrophic. Conversely, lecithotrophy was prevalent in the groups of restricted or endemic species, indicating that speciation rates should be higher for species without the high dispersal abilities associated with feeding, long-lived planktonic stages. Finally, the species per family ratios in the the four islands did not support the hypothesis that oceanic islands can act in general as refugia for invertebrate faunas during periods of lowered sea-level. Some isolated cases, however, do indicate that these localities have sheltered particular groups of species that underwent extinction elsewhere.