Malacology in the UTEP Biodiversity Collections
by Andrea Vega
Marine bivalves in the UTEP Biodiversity Collections Division of Malacology
One of my favorite things to do when I go to the beach is to collect shells. The shapes, the colors, and the different sizes are so intriguing to me. This past semester I had the privilege of working in the Malacology section of the UTEP Biodiversity Collections (UTEP-BC). The Malacology collection is made up of over 14,000 lots of specimens of a large variety and from an array of locations such as Japan, South Africa, and New Zealand to name a few.. This collection is made up of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial shells as well ( an entire room is dedicated to it!). Some even retain the operculum. So as you might imagine, being able to see and identify where these shells came from exactly was tremendously exciting for me.
The majority of my job included organizing data in preparation for photographing and publishing to the UTEP-BC online database. This was only a small amount of the work that needs to be done in the collection. When I see a shell I think of it as the exoskeleton of a once living gastropod or mollusk. Shells, although they are attached to the animal, are essentially made of minerals (calcium carbonate) that the animal excretes over time. It is so interesting to realize that shells can survive so many elements and remain beyond the life that was once a part of them. And we can find many of these shell-inhabiting organisms in our own backyards!
Many students on campus walk through these halls every day yet do not even know that these collections are here. In a time where the Internet is possibly one of the greatest tools for education, I have gained a huge amount of appreciation for the biodiversity collections after learning how much work, time, and effort goes into making them available to the public. The work I did this past semester was only a fraction of the amount of work that needs to be done, not only in Malacology, but in the many other collections that are part of the UTEP-BC. I encourage students to take the time to explore the UTEP Biodiversity Collections and take advantage of what it has to offer.