Microsnails at Microscales in Borneo: Distributions of Prosobranchia Versus Pulmonata

Cryptic diversity, molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the rock- and leaf litter-dwelling land snails of Belau (Republic of Palau, Oceania)

“…The low vagility of leaf litter-and rock-dwelling snails may contribute to higher speciation potential (Schilthuizen et al 2002), and therefore it would not have been surprising to find more evidence of intraisland radiation in the current study, in which only clade 8 Babeldaob snails (figure 4) provided evidence for in situ radiation. Speciation has apparently occurred largely among islands.…”

“…Calcium carbonate is important in maintaining shell growth, and Schilthuizen et al (2002) and Briers (2003) have suggested that more calciphilic snail species have smaller geographical ranges and fragmented population structures that may increase speciation potential.…”

Using biogeographical patterns of endemic land snails to improve conservation planning for limestone karsts

“…Karsts in this region mostly occur as sheer-sided tower outcrops riddled with caves and sinkholes. Due to their isolation from one another by non-calcareous substrata (Paton, 1961), gene flow between karsts has been restricted, with the result that certain taxa on these habitat islands exhibit high levels of endemism via allopatric (van Benthem-Jutting, 1958;Tweedie, 1961) and/or parapatric (Schilthuizen et al, 2002) modes of speciation. For example, 21% of 1216 karst-associated plant species are endemic to West Malaysia and 11% are strictly confined to karsts (Chin, 1977).…”

“…Here, we use land snail data from 16 different karsts in Malaysia to identify correlates of endemism from a set of factors (i.e., karst area, isolation, surrounding soil type and geological age) hypothesized to affect species endemism using generalized linear mixed-effect models. Next, we use ordination methods to investigate how land snail species compositions varied among these 16 karsts in West Malaysia (using the same dataset), and among 27 other karsts in East Malaysia that were sampled in previous studies (e.g., Schilthuizen et al, 2002Schilthuizen et al, , 2005. This study is timely because extensive quarrying activities threaten large numbers of karst-endemic plants and animals in Malaysia and, to a larger extent, Southeast Asia (Clements et al, 2006).…”

Modem Records of the Pink Heelsplitter Mussel,Potamilus alatus(Say, 1817), in the Ottawa River Drainage, Québec and Ontario, Canada

“…The ultimate goals of the ongoing research projects are, among other things, understanding land snail endemism, speciation and conservation in isolated limestone outcrops (e.g., Schilthuizen et al, 2005a, b) and levels of diversity (e.g., Schilthuizen et al, 2001Schilthuizen et al, , 2002Schilthuizen et al, , 2003. However, to do so, we needed a much better taxonomic basis.…”