I'm currently a lab tech at Cornell University working with fungal pathogens of the spotted lanternfly and other invasive insects. My strongest interests (amateur for the moment) are in molluscan systematics, and I spent several years working in museum collections. I am most familiar with Californian mollusks, but I enjoy learning about the malacofauna of all regions that I have the privilege of exploring. I'm also currently wrapping up two manuscripts from undergraduate research on the freshwater hydroid Cordylophora.

In general, I am fascinated by the diversity of life we are blessed with and I love getting outside and experiencing it. As a recent grad of Wheaton College (IL), I love exploring the intersection of science and faith—particularly how conventional science and Christian theology complement each other incredibly well. Feel free to reach out if you are curious about that (or check out this site)!

I used to regularly ID some substantial groups (see below), but this became too time-consuming to keep up with. I'd still love to help out anyone interested, so please feel free to ask for IDs, explanations, clarifications, or tips on how to take good photos of mollusks. As for my own observations, please let me know how I can take better photos!

I'm also the most active mollusk curator, so let me know if you see any issues in the taxonomy. We automatically sync with MolluscaBase, but they miss things sometimes.

I have identified through March 2023:
Santa Barbara County Mollusks (see this site for some terrestrial mollusks)
South Dakota Mollusks
Banana slugs (see this post)
Lancetooth snails
West Coast Bivalves (Alaska through Baja California)
Juga (following this paper)
Mollusks in these projects: Living Bivalves, Terrestrial Gastropod Dissections, Fossils of North America, The Pot Fouling Project

Here's some publicly available sources that I've found useful for mollusk IDs. Let me know if any of the links are broken or if you'd like anything more specific (there are lots more!).

Marine

Mollusks (various)
Mollusks (Mediterranean)
Mollusks (Pacific Northwest)
Mollusks (Central California)
Mollusks (Southern California) (see this too)
Mollusks (Southwest Florida)
Bivalves (Central California to Oregon)
Pyramidellidae (West Coast)
Epitoniidae (Northeastern Pacific)

Freshwater

Snails (North America) (see this too)
Snails (Montana)
Snails (Wisconsin)
Snails (Illinois)
Physidae
Juga
Fluminicola
Bivalves (Montana)
Bivalves (Illinois)
Mussels (North America)
Mussels (Upper Mississippi)
Mussels (Wisconsin) (see this project too)
Mussels (Maryland)
Pea Clams (North America) (see this too)
Zebra vs. Quagga Mussels

Terrestrial

Gastropods (general)
Gastropods (North America) (see this checklist and Pilsbry for more detail: I.i.1, I.i.2, I.ii.1, I.ii.2, II.i.1, II.i.2, II.ii.1, II.ii.2)
Gastropods (Eastern US)
Gastropods (East Coast)
Gastropods (British Columbia)
Gastropods (Montana)
Gastropods (Illinois)
Gastropods (Tennessee)
Gastropods (California)
Gastropods (Channel Islands)
Gastropods (Westmont College)
Snails (Black Hills)
Snails (Minnesota)
Pupilloidea (Eastern North America) (see also Pupilla)
Strophocheilidae
Euconulus (see this too)
Zachrysia
Banana Slugs (and see my post here)

Fossils

Black Hills (map)
California Pliocene–Pleistocene
California Tertiary (Marine Bivalves): a, b, c, d, e
Santa Barbara (map)
Vaqueros Formation (see this too)

Taxones favoritos

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