Series: Records of the Zoological Survey of India Occasional Papers Volume: 228
97 pages, no illustrations
From the introduction:
"Natural History Museums are recognized as centers for systematics. Here the preserved and well-studied collection serves a central role as the single most important resource of systematics. Besides this, museum collections are important reference system of diversity of living organisms, to be used as the material for new evolutionary ideas. Recently, museum collections have become increasingly useful for molecular studies, for example for studying mitochondrial DNA (Diamond, 1990). Natural History collections are also necessary for the solution of the problem in both basic and applied sciences, besides being an important and integral part of cultural heritage. It therefore, especially in tropical countries, requires a constant and continuous attention for their preservation, study, and research. The Malacological collection of the Zoological Survey of India is unique, as it is the largest collection in Southeast Asia. The departmental collections of mollusca are the most comprehensive, developed over more than two centuries. These form a comprehensive database of the known Indian fauna and their scientific value goes far beyond the primary use of taxonomic research. The collections are used as a research resource both nationally and internationally. The collections serves as depository of primary type specimens for several Southeast Asian countries and as the main resource material from all faunal regions that is convenient for eastern researchers to visit routinely.
The museum collection of terrestrial, freshwater and marine forms include named representatives of over five thousand eleven hundred described species both Indian and exotic with an estimated three million specimens, including the types of almost 1510 species. On average, 5000 specimens are normally added to the collections each year. The team of scientists of the Mollusca section apply the highest standard in the curation, conservation and enhancement of the museum’s collections and develop electronic resources to support these activities and to widen and increase to the access to the information the collections contain. The team promotes the use of collections to further knowledge of the natural work through loans, visits and collaborative projects, in addition to supporting the Museum's own research progrannnes. The team is also active in developing and improving the methods, material and equipment across the whole field of collection, management from specification of cabinets to computer indexing.
This paper describes the type specimens belonging to the categories of holotype; paratype, cotype and neotype included in the catalogue that were described in between 1862 to 1964 i.e., for 102 years. A total of 323 species are included under different type categories of the class Bivalvia, Scaphopoda and Cephalopoda under 103 genera and 50 families. The class Bivalvia includes 298 species under 93 genera and 43 families; Scaphopoda having 8 species under single genus and a single family, while the Cephalopoda have 17 species under 9 genera and 6 families. Of the 298 species of bivalves, 159 are holotypes, followed by types (70), paratypes (51), co-type (32), syntypes (21), topotypes (2), neotype (1) and 4 of undesignated status."
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