Shallow water marine molluscan faunas are distributed in a pattern of distinct, geographically definable areas. This makes mollusks ideal for studying the distribution of organisms in the marine environment and the processes and patterns that control their evolution. Biogeography and Biodiversity of Western Atlantic Mollusks is the first book to us

Shallow water marine molluscan faunas are distributed in a pattern of distinct, geographically definable areas. This makes mollusks ideal for studying the distribution of organisms in the marine environment and the processes and patterns that control their evolution. Biogeography and Biodiversity of Western Atlantic Mollusks is the first book to use quantitative methodologies to define marine molluscan biogeographical patterns. It traces the historical development of these patterns for the subtropical and tropical western Atlantic. The book discusses the multistage process of evolving new taxa caused by eustatic fluctuations, ecological stress, and evolutionary selection. Drawing on his decades of intensive field work, the author defines three western Atlantic molluscan provinces and 15 subprovinces based on his Provincial Combined Index, a modern refinement of Valentine’s 50% rule. The faunal provinces—Carolinian, Caribbean, and Brazilian—are discussed in detail. The text defines the physical aspects of the provinces using quantitative data, with water temperature as the primary parameter. It discusses the details of the 15 subprovinces—geographically definable faunal subdivisions—as well as provinciatones, transition zones of provincial overlap. The author’s algorithms demonstrate that the bulk of the molluscan biodiversity is concentrated in 40 separate centers of speciation, ranging from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, south to Argentina. Many of these evolutionary hotspots reside on remote archipelagos and offshore banks as well as within areas of provincial overlap. The text describes some of the more exotic and poorly known areas and presents maps and color photographs of characteristic habitats, index species, and live animals, including over 400 species of rare and seldom seen shells.

Marine biogeography, the study of the spatial distribution of organisms in the world’s oceans, is one of the most fascinating branches of oceanography. This book continues the pioneering research into the distributions of molluscan faunas, first studied by biologists over 160 years ago. It illustrates 1778 species of gastropods in full color, many of which are extremely rare and poorly known endemic species that are illustrated for the first time outside of their original descriptions. The spatial arrangements of malacofaunas shown in this book can be considered proxies for worldwide oceanic conditions and used as tools for determining patterns of global climate change. The book's documentation of evolutionary "hot spots" and geographically restricted endemic faunas can also be used as a base line for future studies on patterns of environmental deterioration and extinction in the marine biosphere. Documenting the evolution of the amazingly rich worldwide gastropod fauna, this book will appeal to physical and chemical oceanographers, systematic and evolutionary biologists, historical geologists, paleontologists, climatologists, geomorphologists, and physical geographers. The authors incorporate aspects of all of these disciplines into a new classification system for the nomenclature of biogeographical spatial units found in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate seas.

The authors have done an outstanding job of compiling decades of data collected by their own field reconnaissance and other geoscientists... This represents a significant contribution to the understanding of the development of the Florida carbonate platform, and it will assist other disciplines as they strive for better understanding of our groundwater resources, aquifer characterizations, paleoenvironmental interpretations, and historical/educational geology programs. Walt Schmidt, Florida State Geologist & Chief, Florida Geological Survey, USA (praise for the first edition) Painting a complete picture of the history of the Everglades, Ancient Seas of Southern Florida: The Geology and Paleontology of the Everglades Region, Second Edition provides an overview of the geology, paleontology, and paleoceanography of the region. It emphasizes the upper 300m of the geologic framework of the area and gives insight into the local stratigraphy, geomorphology, lithology, and historical geology. Designed to be a field guide as well as a reference, the book is illustrated in full color with brand new photographs of exposed geologic sections, stratotype localities, collection sites, and details of interesting fossil beds. In this book, the authors illustrate almost 800 of the most important and diagnostic stratigraphic index fossils found in these beds, including over 50 species of corals and almost 700 species of mollusks, along with echinoderms, crustaceans, echinoids, petrified wood, and aquatic vertebrates. A new edition of The Geology of the Everglades and Adjacent Areas, it contains larger images of fossil shells, corals, and echinoderms and includes new updated geological data and concepts, as well as an expanded iconography of stratigraphic index fossils. Based on the data gleaned from these fossils, it also offers a series of geomorphological visualizations, showing the possible appearances of the Florida Peninsula during the times when it was covered by tropical seas, from the Oligocene to the late Pleistocene. This second edition provides a new perspective on both the historical geology of southern Florida and the evolution of one of America’s most beautiful natural treasures, the Everglades.

Molluscan Communities of the Florida Keys and Adjacent Areas: Their Ecology and Biodiversity is the first comprehensive overview of the ecology and biodiversity of the phylum Mollusca in the area of Florida extending from the Dry Tortugas and Ten Thousand Islands in the west to Palm Beach in the east. The book provides detailed analyses of molluscan faunas found in 20 different ecosystems, emphasizing the marine environments of the Florida Keys archipelago and its extensive coral reef tracts. Full-page color illustrations portray living animals, unique Keys environments, underwater ecosystems, and satellite images. More than 1,200 species of macromollusks—in 86 gastropod families and 54 bivalve families—are recorded from the study area, with color plates illustrating over 550 of the region’s most ecologically important species. For the first time in any book on the malacology of the Florida Keys area, the 20 marine ecosystems and their associated molluscan assemblages are arranged by the CMECS (Coastal Marine Ecological Classification Standard) system. This system emphasizes the hierarchical relationships determined by substrate type, bathymetry, and water chemistry. Along with complete species lists for every molluscan assemblage, this handy guide introduces ten newly-discovered gastropods, including new species in the families Muricidae, Buccinidae, Nassariidae, Naticidae, Turritellidae, and Olividae. Two new bivalves in the families Pectinidae and Arcidae are also described in a special systematic appendix. This richly illustrated book is written for the professional scientific audience interested in mollusks, marine ecology, evolution, and taxonomy as well as malacologists, naturalists, and shell collectors. It is also an ideal synoptic field guide, showing where individual species of mollusks can be found and within which ecosystems they occur.

For centuries, the southernmost region of the Florida peninsula was seen by outsiders as wild and inaccessible, one of the last frontiers in the quest to understand and reveal the natural history of the continent. Seeking the American Tropics tells the stories of the explorers and adventurers who—for better and for worse—helped open the unique environment of South Florida to the world. Beginning with the arrival of Juan Ponce de León in 1513, James Kushlan describes how most of the famous Spanish explorers never made it to South Florida, leaving the area’s rich natural history out of scientific records for the next 250 years. It wasn’t until the British colonial and early American periods that the first surveyors were commissioned and the first naturalists—Titian Peale and John James Audubon—arrived to collect, draw, and report the subtropical flora and fauna that were so unique to North America. Moving into the railroad era, Kushlan illuminates the activities of scientists such as Henry Nehrling and Charles Torrey Simpson alongside the dabbling of wealthy amateur naturalists. He follows the story to the 1920s, when tourism was flourishing and signs of ecological damage were starting to show. Years of wildlife trade, resource extraction, invasive species introduction, and swamp drainage had taken their toll. And many of the naturalists who had been outspoken about protecting South Florida’s environment had also played a part in its destruction. Today the region is among one of the most thoroughly studied places on the planet—but at a cost. In this absorbing and cautionary tale, Kushlan illustrates how exploration has so often trumped conservation throughout history. He exposes how much of the natural world we have already lost in this vivid portrait of the Florida of yesterday.