CLEMAM
Check
List
of European
Marine
Mollusca
|
Conception et réalisation
: Jacques LE RENARD, B.I.M.M., M.N.H.N. Paris
CLEMAM
|
|---|
Welcome to CLEMAM, an authoritative database of the Marine Mollusca of Europe and surrounding areas
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CLEMAM is a taxonomically oriented database
of the marine Mollusca of Europe and adjacent areas (view
the map of coastal sectors), aiming to a comprehensive coverage
of the species in the eastern Atlantic from 26°N to the North Pole,
the Mid Atlantic Ridge and the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas.
The database lists the species currently accepted
as valid (V, and boldface display), thence
for each one its basionym (*, original reference
where the specific name was introduced) and all synonyms (=)
and questionable synonyms (?) known to the
CLEMAM editor. Subsequent references to the species are not exhaustive;
these include "chresonyms" (X, references
to the species, using the valid name, or one of its synonyms or combinations),
and misidentifications (!, references in which
the valid name of another species is misapplied).
Page references are given for all entries registered
after 1995, and are being completed gradually for the initial batch, where
only a statement of the name, author and date of publication were given.
There are currently about 17.000 references, of
which ca. 3500 are valid names.
CLEMAM aims as being the standing reference for
the systematics of European Mollusca, as well as a tool for species-oriented
bibliographic search. The list of valid names of Mollusca in CLEMAM was
contributed in 1999 to the European Register of Marine Species, an E.C.
funded project led by Mark Costello (see the ERMS
homepage), and we expect the CLEMAM framework to be the taxonomic base
for other published and Internet checklists, catalogues and identification
guides.
What are the species of Nassariidae in the European
area?
Searching by higher taxa will yield a list
of all valid species in the area belonging to this taxa, and thence their
synonyms and chresonyms, but will not include records which are deemed
incorrect (e.g. searching under Nassariidae will not yield Nassarius
wolffi Knudsen, 1952, a tropical West African species which has two
synonyms Nassa sadurnii and Hinia fringens malacitana, described
from wrong localities in Spain; but those names are in CLEMAM and will
be retrieved under the specific epithet).
What is the current valid name of Rissoa inconspicua?
Who is the author, and which is the date of publication
of σσ?
Searches under epithets or combinations are directed
to questions such as "what is σσ ? ". If the request hits a synonym or
otherwise invalid name, click on the name to go up to the full display
and get the valid name, with its synonymy (including the searched name).
Such searches will retrieve also the species which are erroneously cited
in the area (with a comment stating that we reject the record).
Searches under a binomen will retrieve only the exact
binomen.
Warning: at this stage, CLEMAM does
not contain many Genus/species combinations which have been widely used
in the literature, but are neither the original binomen nor the current
name (see "future developments"; e.g. we have Buccinum lapillus
and Nucella lapillus, but not Purpura lapillus which has
been used for over a century). Thus, it is better to search first the specific
name (epithet); this will retrieve a list of the combinations in which
it appears, including the valid one.
Some names (e.g. forskoehlii, forskali;
ruppelli,
ruppellii,
ruepelli)
have elusive orthographic variants. Each variant is a totally different
name in the base, so when in doubt, try them all or search under the appropriate
genus or family name. If a species is registered as forskoehlii,
search under forskoeli will yield "sorry, this taxon forsk...
is unknown".
Where was this species published?
For all entries posterior to 1995 and for many of the older ones,
the author name in an entry is sensitive and gives access to the complete
book or paper reference. These can be retrieved only one by one, but the
user can copy and paste them in a wordprocessor document for his files.
Now, you can also get bibliographic information directly, by typing
the name (or the beginning of the name) of an author, instead of the name
of a taxon. For instance, the "taxon or author name" Jeffreys will fetch
the list of all the publications by Jeffreys, with, for each publication,
a button pointing to the list of the taxonomic references present in that
paper and which have been included in CLEMAM (primary references are in
bold characters). Note : You may find difficulties with accents in
names ; in many instances, this may be avoided by truncating the name
(e.g., for Warén, type War) ...
* About CLEMAM
The need to compile a check-list of the European
marine molluscs was discussed during the 10th International Malacological
Congress (Tübingen, 1989) and a resolution was passed to this effect
by the General Assembly of Unitas Malacologica, and Anders Warén
(Stockholm) and Philippe Bouchet (Paris) were asked to investigate into
its feasability. The acronym CLEMAM (Check List of the European MArine
Molluscs) was chosen because of its similarity to CLOFNAM and CLOFETA,
the very successful regional checklists of Fishes compiled under the umbrella
of UNESCO. In 1994, an ad hoc meeting, funded by Unitas Malacologica, brought
together in Paris malacologists representing several regional or national
lists of marine molluscs:
Who does what in CLEMAM?
Database design and development, web interface: Jacques Le Renard
(Directeur de Recherches, INRA.
E-mail: lerenard@mnhn.fr)
Taxonomic editor: Serge Gofas (Lecturer, University of Malaga.
E-mail: sgofas@uma.es)
External liaison: Philippe Bouchet (Senior Curator, MNHN.
E-mail: pbouchet@mnhn.fr).
Acknowledgements
We thank the following persons and institutions who have permitted
the development of CLEMAM:
(1) Unitas Malacologica and its secretary (E. Gittenberger, Leiden,
NL) and treasurer (J. van Goethem, Brussels, B) for seed money in the early
phases of the project; Società Italiana di Malacologia and R.
Giannuzzi-Savelli (Palermo, I), J.-A. Sneli and T. Hoisaeter (Trondheim and
Bergen, N), E. Platts, D. Heppell and S. Smith (Edinburgh, UK), and A. Guerra
(Vigo, SP) for making available electronic versions of published checklists.
(2) Maria-Antonietta and Paolo Angioy, editors of the magazine La
Conchiglia (Roma), for permission to use pictures of Mediterranean gastropods
published in the Atlante delle conchiglie marine del Mediterraneo.
* Clemam News
August, 1999:
The great breakthrough for CLEMAM users this summer
is that there is now access to complete bibliographic references, not only
to the page references given with
taxonomic entries. The author name is now a sensitive zone, click on
it and you should get a message: Publication Pxxxxx is: (complete reference).
Of course, if the reference is
not yet in the base (about 50% of them are there), you only get the
author name.
Outstanding new entries! There is now a species
of Bathymodiolus in (rather: at the edge of) CLEMAM area.
The difficult Cephalaspid genus Diaphana has been revised
by Tom Schiøtte, so that some order has been brought.
New direct links have been made to the test sheets
of the forthcoming Atlas of Alien and Introduced species which is being
prepared at the initiative of CIESM, Monaco.
Try references to Cerithium scabridum and to Anadara demiri
(click on the words CIESM atlas in chresonym list; from there you can go to
the CIESM home page ane read more about the atlas).
August, 2001:
Having run more than 58,000 requests, CLEMAM gets a brand new homepage...
November, 2001:
Now, you can get bibliographic information directly, by typing
the name (or the beginning of the name) of an author, instead of the name
of a taxon. For instance, the "taxon or author name" Jeffreys will fetch
the list of all the publications by Jeffreys, with, for each publication,
a button pointing to the list of the taxonomic references present in that
paper and which have been included in CLEMAM (primary references are in
bold characters). Note : You may find difficulties with accents in
names ; in many instances, this may be avoided by truncating the name ...
End of July, 2002:
A huge catastroph : the whole interface
software has been lost at once, due to a hard disk failure on the M.N.H.N.
server. No backup copy of the interface software can be found at all !!!
This means that Jacques Le Renard has to write all the software again, from
scratch [for time saving, he'll do that on his personal web site, hence the
strange URL].
Fortunately, the database itself and its content are safe (it has been
copied on a mirror site).
September, 2002:
The M.N.H.N. server is still down. But here comes the new CLEMAM!
A new brand software has been written by Jacques, with a completely new
design. It allows to navigate among taxonomic and bibliographic data
more easily, and offers additionnal features, such as a multilingual
support, and the ability to work with lists of names instead of single
names. Moreover, CLEMAM inherits some original features of the
FOSSILS
database [also re-written by Jacques during his summer "hollidays"]:
a geographical gazeteer (still to be filled in by Serge for CLEMAM).
February, 2003:
The underlying software of CLEMAM has been incorporated into TAXIS (i.e.,
TAXonomic Information System), a new generic tool. Although TAXIS is
particularly aimed at managing all the systematical aspects of collection
databases, it is also used now, in a somewhat limited way, as the engine
that powers the CLEMAM database. This explains why some new concepts have
appeared here and there in the new CLEMAM interface. For an explanation
of new terms used, see the
TAXIS help page.
April, 2003:
A management html interface has been added to TAXIS. Now, Serge Gofas, our
expert in taxonomy, can freely work on the database, from anywhere in the world.
Allthough this interface can be seen by everybody
(example),
only those with the right password can modify or add information to the database.
End of July, 2003:
|
NEW : If you want to use printouts of CLEMAM,
you can now download printable systematic lists with PDF format. A new radio button
has appeared on the SYSTEMATICS form, called 'pdf list'. When you select
it and give the name of a taxon (of any rank), you'll get an Acrobat readable
document, that can be printed easily and neatly. If the taxon you have entered
is above the Order rank, the list does not include the species taxa; otherwise,
the list goes down to the species level. [Due to time limitations imposed by the
used server, it may happen that some lenghty lists are truncated before
they have completed, resulting in fragmentary and thus unreadable files;
this is particularly true when the server is overloaded.] Ex.: List of MURICOIDEA |
* Interactivity
We welcome comments, suggestions of items
to be included, and suggestions for corrections. Comments regarding the
database structure should be addressed to Jacques
Le Renard, comments regarding taxonomy should be addressed to Serge
Gofas.
More general links to sites of interest can be found below
Nudibranchs of the British Isles.
MALACOLOG-3.0: A database of the Recent Gastropods of the Western Atlantic, based in Philadelphia and maintained by Gary Rosenberg.
MOLLIA: Information for malacologists, on the Berkeley website. Don't miss either the virtual exhibits of the Museum of Paleontology!
Mollusk research collections: A listing (but not a searchable database) of major malacological collections, by geographical area, by K. S. Cummings (Champaign).
Other connections related to Conchology (Guido Poppe)
Picture database of shells, by G. Poppe & Goto
Il Mediterraneo e le sue conchiglie: Shells from an aesthete's point of view, with some of the best quality photography on the web.
Catalogo interattivo: Molluschi del Pliocene Italiano.