Joined: May 21, 2019 Last Active: Oct 3, 2024 iNaturalist Monthly Supporter since November 2022
I'm currently a lab tech at Cornell University working with mosquitoes and fruit flies as models to study gut health and infectious disease. 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 have also conducted research on zebra mussels, the freshwater hydroid Cordylophora, and entomopathogenic fungi of the spotted lanternfly, brown marmorated stinkbug, and spongy moth.
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 on iNat, so let me know if you see any issues in the taxonomy. We automatically sync with MolluscaBase, but they miss things sometimes.
I am keeping up with IDs of:
Santa Barbara County Mollusks (see this site for some terrestrial mollusks)
South Dakota Mollusks
Lancetooth snails
Juga (following this paper)
Freshwater limpets (Lancini)
Mollusks in these projects: Living Bivalves, Terrestrial Gastropod Dissections, Fossils of North America, The Pot Fouling Project, Monster Snails, Type Reference/Voucher Collections
I have identified through March 2023:
Banana slugs (see this post)
West Coast Bivalves (Alaska through Baja California)
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!).
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)
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
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)
Black Hills (map)
California Pliocene–Pleistocene
California Tertiary (Marine Bivalves): a, b, c, d, e
Santa Barbara (map)
Vaqueros Formation (see this too)