World Congress of Malacology Antwerp ... - Unitas Malacologica

homologues among other caenogastropods, and their potential relevance in evaluating the
relationships and affinities of neogastropods will be discussed. Although not character rich, this
organ system provides a unique perspective on possible sister group relationships and evolutionary
dynamics of neogastropods, including the rare invasion of freshwater habitats within the group.
The Sphaeriidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) of Victor Sterki
Sturm, Charles 1 ; Pearce, Timothy 2
Research Associate, Section of Mollusks, Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080, USA,
Email csturmjr@pitt.edu
Curator, Section of Mollusks, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes
Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080, USA,
Email pearcet@carnegiemnh.org
The Sphaeriidae is a family of Bivalvia comprising about 150-200 species. These species are well
represented in the Palearctic and Nearctic regions. A leading student of the Nearctic sphaeriid fauna
was Victor Sterki (1846-1933). During his lifetime, Sterki corresponded with many malacologists
and exchanged material with them. At the time of his death, his sphaeriid collection contained an
estimated 12,000 lots. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History acquired this collection.
Between 1894 and 1927, Sterki described 158 new sphaeriid taxa. He rarely noted whether specimens
were type material on the labels. His extensive trading with others has dispersed much type material
to other collections. Over the years, many of these collections have found their way into other
museums. Often, it is not realized that these collections contain sphaeriid types. These unrecognized
types, along with Sterki having published his descriptions in several serials, makes it difficult and
time consuming for museum personnel to determine the type status of their Sterki material. At the
Carnegie Museum, a quick check of 8 species of Pisidium from Sterki’s collection found 48 type lots.
Based on this, it is estimated that the Carnegie’s collection contains more than 900 Sterki types.
We are currently developing a database, listing all taxa of Sphaeriidae described by Sterki along with
the type localities (often more than one for each taxon) and original publication references. This
database will eventually be available on the Carnegie Museum website. Using this database,
personnel at other museums will be able to determine whether their collections contain type
specimens of sphaeriids described by Sterki.
New data on Paleozoic continental gastropods from Poland: Sedimentary and evolutionary
context
Stworzewicz, Ewa 1 ; Pokryszko, Beata M. 2 ; Szulc, Joachim 3
1. Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland,
Email: stworzewicz@isez.pan.krakow.pl
2. Museum of Natural History, Wroclaw Univesity, Wroclaw, Poland,
Email: bepok@biol.uni.wroc.pl
3. Institute of Geological Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland,
Email: szulc@ing.uj.edu.pl
The advent of the first terrestrial snails and their differentiation at the earliest stages of evolution have
long been of great interest to malacologists. The extreme scarcity of fossil record does not provide
facilities for a re-construction of the history of terrestrial malacofauna. Poland is among the few
countries, next to the United States, Canada, England, France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic
and – probably – Russia, with fossil record of land snails from the late Carboniferous and early
Permian. Based on the literature studies, the total number of terrestrial Palaeozoic snails world-wide
does not exceed 20 taxa. The Polish contribution to such studies was a description of a new species,
Dendropupa zarecznyi Panow, 1936. Cursory mentions of another two species are contained in the
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