SCUM FOR EVERYONE

2011 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA UNIFIED MALACOLOGISTS MEETING (SCUM) MEETING

Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

3535 Harbor Blvd., Suite 110

Costa Mesa, CA

Directions: http://www.sccwrp.org/ContactUs/Directions.aspx

Saturday, January 22, 2011

9:00 AM to 9:30 AM - Meet & Greet (coffee and donuts)

9:30 AM to 12:00 PM - Introductions & Presentations

12:00 PM to 1:00 PM - Lunch (menu TBD)

1:00 PM to 3:30 PM - Presentations continued

For more information contact: Kelvin Barwick, kbarwick@ocsd.org; (714-593-7475)

I plan on presenting a short talk on my work in the Carrizo Plain and Salinas Valley using mollusk to determine offset of the San Andreas fault since the latest Miocene. Many more talks and likely some more interesting will be presented - I know hard to believe. Its free, interesting, and usually lots of fun. Come and join us.

UP IN THE CHUKCHI SEA

North of Bering Strait and west of Point Barrow, Alaska, lies the Chukchi Sea - home to a mix of north and west Pacific, circumboreal and Arctic marine fauna. Offshore are areas designated as possible oil lease areas, and the shallow, epicontinental sea is home to ice-dependent marine mammals, migratory whales, and birds including shearwaters, fulomars, and eiders. Small Inupiat communities depend on these resources for food and cultural identity. In August I was invited to participate in sampling to support environmental assessment of the nearshore habitats between Point Hope and Point Lay.

The jumping off point for this expedition to the Chukchi Sea is Nome on the Seward Peninsula. Getting there from Fairbanks in the Alaskan interior requires a flight first south to Anchorage then north and west to Nome. At the small crowded Nome airport, I joined the scientific party, and loaded supplies and personal gear onto a couple pickups, then we drove off through fog and drizzle to the small harbor. We met the crew of the Noresman II and settled in. During the 30 hour transit from Nome to the first sampling station, our scientific party of 10 and crew of six got acquainted, ran through drills, and refined our sampling protocols, for physical oceanographic conditions and water quality, plankton, fishes, and benthic invertebrates. My role, along with Roger Clark, was to identify benthic invertebrates, to count and weigh the catch from the beam trawl sampling.

We were favored by relatively mild temperatures and calm seas. Because of these favorable conditions, we completed three sampling stations in a 10- 12 hour day before steaming to the next day’s starting point.

The benthic invertebrate life a mix of species at their northernmost geographical range, species best known form the west Pacific, and Arctic fauna. We sorted large catches of seastars, shrimps, and ascidians as well as numerous gastropods. The Beringian area of which the Chukchi is the northwestern extent, is possibly the center for the evolution and dispersal of north Pacific Conidae- all those confusing Oenopota etc., also Buccinidae: Buccinum, Colus, Neptunea, Plicifusus, and so on. Velutina and Onchidiopsis, which are generally poorly known were encountered. In addition, we found five nudibranchs, a large red-mottled Dendronotus, a Flabellina, two Arctic species Calycidoris guentheri, and Acanthodoris pilosa. I was working with the epifauna, so bivalves seldom showed up in the catch from the beam trawl. Bivalves are mainly collected as infauna samples taken with a van veen grab.

Next year the project will continue exploring the Arctic nearshore as for as Point Barrow. Meanwhile, I’m identifying voucher specimens of rare or problematic species.

Nora Foster

NEW PAPER ON BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE SAN JOAQUIN FORMATION

Sorry for the long delay. This past week I had a paper come out on biostratigraphy of the San Joaquin Formation (Pliocene) at the Kettleman City toxic waste dump, North Dome, Kettleman City, Kings County, central California - http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2010/1140/. The paper is mainly a data dump of fossil occurrences in what was a beautifully exposed section, but which is now being filled with all sorts of nasty stuff. The highlights of the paper are presented below.

The stratigraphic occurrences and interpreted biostratigraphy of invertebrate fossil taxa in the upper San Joaquin Formation and lower-most Tulare Formation encountered at the Chemical Waste Management Kettleman Hills waste disposal facility on the North Dome of the Kettleman Hills, Kings County, California are documented. Significant new findings include (1) a detailed biostratigraphy of the upper San Joaquin Formation; (2) the first fossil occurrence of Modiolus neglectus; (3) distinguishing Ostrea sequens from Myrakeena veatchii (Ostrea vespertina of authors) in the Central Valley of California; (4) differentiating two taxa previously attributed to Pteropurpura festivus; (5) finding a stratigraphic succession between Caesia coalingensis (lower in the section) and Catilon iniquus (higher in the section); and (6) recognizing Pliocene-age fossils from around Santa Barbara. In addition, the presence of the bivalves Anodonta and Gonidea in the San Joaquin Formation, both restricted to fresh water and common in the Tulare Formation, confirm periods of fresh water or very close fresh-water environments during deposition of the San Joaquin Formation.

More to follow soon.

Charles Powell, II

2010 WSM MEETING

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The 76th Annual Meeting of the American Malacological Society

The 43rd Annual Meeting of the Western Society of Malacologists

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26-30 June 2010, San Diego, CA

AMS/WSM 2010

*** Submission Deadline: 3 May 2010 ***

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http://www.malacological.org/meetings

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Call for Abstracts

As the current Presidents of AMS and WSM, it is our pleasure to announce the upcoming joint 76th Annual Meeting of the American Malacological Society and 43rd Annual Meeting of the Western Society of Malacologists to be held on the campus of San Diego State University (http://as.sdsu.edu/aztec/forms/SDSU_Campus_Map-Parking.pdf) in San Diego, California. The meeting will kick off in style with a welcome reception on the evening of Saturday, June 26th, with scientific sessions held from Sunday (June 27th) to noon on Wednesday (June 30th). Stay the following day, Thursday, July 1st, for organized or informal excursions in the San Diego area.

Venue. - We are fortunate to have reserved our meeting site at San Diego State University. The new SDSU Aztec Conference Center is attractive and easily accessible by car or via public transportation. SDSU has both new suites and somewhat less expensive older dorms, but both are affordable. We have negotiated a great rate for on-campus residents that includes all meals in a modern dining cafeteria. It is very nice! We encourage meeting attendees to select this option in order to promote interactions between meeting participants, but there are also many hotels within fairly close proximity of the meeting site, and non-resident attendees can choose whether to purchase an optional lunch plan during registration, or to plan to forage on their own in a variety of other restaurants or fast food options near the conference center. Public transit options include a new trolley stop, which is immediately adjacent to the conference center or a brief walk across a footbridge from the dorms. The trolley connects directly to the downtown train station and airport (search in Google maps for SDSU Transit Center, San Diego), and provides easy access to the outstanding selection of restaurants and bars in famous Old Town, and in the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego, about 29 minutes by trolley. The meeting will be affordable for students and close to world-class ocean beaches and other well known attractions that make San Diego such a popular destination to visit.

Sessions. - Scientific sessions are historically great at joint AMS/WSM West Coast meetings.--Dr. Peter Marko (Assistant Professor, Clemson University) and Dr. Alan Kohn (Professor Emeritus, University of Washington) are organizing an AMS-sponsored symposium on "Biogeography of the Pacific." An impressive line-up of speakers has been confirmed, and these include Dr. Thomas Duda, Dr. Suzanne Williams, Dr. Christine Parent, Dr. Cynthia Trowbridge, Dr. David Jacobs, and Dr. Alan Kohn. These leading scientists have agreed to present their research on Pacific molluscan biogeography on June 29. This symposium and associated contributed paper and poster sessions are expected to be a memorable highlight of the meeting. Please check the corresponding box on the abstract submission form if you would like to present a contributed paper or poster in a session associated with this symposium.

--Dr. Jennifer Burnaford (Assistant Professor, Cal State Fullerton) is organizing a complementary special session on invasive molluscs, for which about eight speakers have already been confirmed. Please check the corresponding box on the abstract submission form if you would like to present a contributed paper in this session.

--Dr. Eric Gonzales (Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Berkeley) will present a timely Student Workshop, "Genomic Tools for Molluscan Ecology and Evolution."

--Lindsey Groves (Dept. Malacology, LACMNH) will be organizing a session on Molluscan Paleontology 2010. Papers with a paleobiogeographic emphasis are particularly encouraged. Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic are all welcome.

--Further details will be on the meeting website very soon at: http://www.malacological.org/meetings/

Other events include ever-popular auction, banquet, reprint sales, and other fun activities. Please plan to attend and spread the word. Contact us if you would like to ship donations for the auction. Help us to make this joint meeting a success by planning to attend, responding when the call for contributed talks and posters is announced, getting involved, and especially encouraging students and colleagues, including those from Latin American countries, to participate. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the meeting organizers, Doug Eernisse at deernisse@fullerton.edu for AMS or George Kennedy at gkennedy@bfsa-ca.com for WSM.

See you in San Diego!

Doug Eernisse Professor of Biology, Cal State Fullerton President AMS

George Kennedy Senior Paleontologist, BFSA President WSM

MOLLUSCAN PALEONTOLOGY 2010

WESTERN SOCIETY OF MALACOLOGISTS & AMERICAN MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY JOINT MEETING

June 26^th – 30^th 2010

Molluscan Paleontology 2010

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS/POSTERS

Molluscan Paleontology 2010 will be held on Monday, June 28^th as part of the Joint Annual Meeting of the Western Society of Malacologists (43^rd) and the American Malacological Society (76^th ) at San Diego State University. Abstracts should be no longer than a single page, and talks should be limited to 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions. All abstracts, extended abstracts, and papers will be published in the Annual Report of the WSM. Papers dealing with paleo-biogeography are especially welcome. Please send abstracts to session chairman Lindsey T. Groves, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Malacology Section [ lgroves@nhm.org ] by Friday, May 7, 2010. See http://biology.fullerton.edu/orgs/wsm/conferences.html [WSM] or http://www.malacological.org/meetings/ [AMS] for additional meeting details.

See you in San Diego!

A LITTLE HELP?

I'm having trouble getting people to write for this blog, so here I am again. One of my current projects is with Carol Stadum and we're looking at the fossils from middle Miocene limestone deposits in southern Orange County. These deposits are interesting in their history (rocks from these limestones were used for cement for the San Juan Capistrano Mission), geology, and fauna and I'm sure I'll have more to say on them in the future. Right now I need a little help.

Attached is a picture of a ... I'm guessing a Turridae, from these deposits. The picture is of a latex cast and the specimen is less than 1 cm long. Any idea what the genus might be? Or, if I even got the family right (I know I've heard it already - its a Turd). The spiral ribs and whorls that overlap the previous whorl reminds me of something but I can't think of what. Any help would be appreciated.

Charles Powell, II

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE 2010 STUDENT RESEARCH GRANTS IN MALACOLOGY

As part of our commitment to the continued study of mollusks, the Western Society of Malacologists with sponsorship from the San Diego Shell Club and former Northern California Malacozoological Club announces the availability of grants to support student research in malacology. Funds can be used for actual research costs, including but not limited to, field and laboratory equipment, chemicals, photographic supplies, computer time and supplies, microscope usage fees, and for research travel costs.

To qualify you must be a full time student in a formal graduate or undergraduate degree program. There are no citizenship or affiliation restrictions and students from all countries are eligible. The thesis, dissertation, or research project must be focused primarily on the systematics, biology, ecology, physiology, biochemistry, or paleontology of marine, terrestrial or freshwater mollusks in western North America. We will consider Research currently in progress or beginning in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Membership in the Western Society of Malacologists is not required but is certainly encouraged and students receive a discounted rate. Award recipients are also encouraged to present their research at a subsequent WSM meeting. Abstracts are published in the WSM Annual Report.

For more on the application process (see http://biology.fullerton.edu/wsm/grants.html for additional application information and forms)
Email to: dzacherl@fullerton.edu

Awards of up to US $1,000.00 are available.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Completed applications must be received no later than MAY 1st 2010. NO exceptions. Please apply early and avoid the deadline rush.

Awards will be announced during the 43nd Annual Meeting of the Western Society of Malacologists, at San Diego June 26- July 1, 2010 (technical sessions June 26-30, field trip July 1), http://biology.fullerton.edu/wsm/conferences.html for additional information.

SCUM IS COMING

Greetings fellow SCUM! Don’t forget our annual malacological extravaganza is coming up on Saturday, January 23^rd starting about 9:30 am at the City of San Diego’s Environmental Monitoring and Technical Services Laboratory. If you need further information, do not hesitate to call (619 758 2378)! If you would like to give a presentation, please let me know. Laser pointer provided! Thanks to those of you who have already volunteered your talents.

Wendy Enright

IT’S ALL ABOUT NUDIBRANCHS!

Nudibranchs and other opisthobranchs are without question the most fascinating marine gastropods because of their beauty and astonishing biology. For a relatively small clade in terms of species numbers, opisthobranchs have been able to adapt to numerous niches and evolve many novel mechanisms for feeding and defense.

I have been fascinated by these organisms since an early age. I vividly remember the first time I found a nudibranch in the tide pools and since that day I just couldn’t get enough of them. I currently work at Cal Poly University in Pomona where I teach evolutionary biology, marine biology and conduct research on the phylogeny and systematics of opisthobranchs. I’m also a research associate with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County with which I maintain a close relationship. I have a small, but active lab. My students are working on molecular and morphological phylogenies of different groups, with an emphasis on local Eastern Pacific and Caribbean taxa. An interesting question we are trying to address is whether feeding behavior is driving speciation in some target groups of nudibranchs – the results we are obtaining are pretty surprising. We are also finding that there are several cryptic species that can only be recognized using molecular markers, as their internal anatomy and external coloration are identical.

WSM conferences are excellent venues for first student presentations and I encourage my students to participate in the meetings. We look forward to the next conference in which we will share with you our latest discoveries.

Best regards,

Angel Valdes

CAROL STADUM AND FOSSILS IN ORANGE COUNTY, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

I was introduced to WSM ten years ago and have been honored to attend their conferences and share research notes and adventures with WSM members. I am a Departmental Associate in the Invertebrate Paleontology section of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Paleontology Division of the San Diego Natural History Museum. Both museums have talented paleontologists who have been very generous with their time and with whom I have completed several research projects.

I am presently finishing a study on Miocene (Relizian benthic foraminifera stage – late early to early middle Miocene) age calcarenite deposit in southeastern Orange County, locally call Pecten Reef. The limey matrix at Pecten Reef contains a large fauna of well-preserved mollusks similar to those now found off Central America along with calcareous algae and some magnificent echinoids.

When I was a child a neighbor took me to a hill east of the City of Orange that was littered with mollusk fossils from the Topanga Formation, primarily the gastropods Turritella ocoyana (Conrad) and T. temblorensis Wiedey. I knew then that the study of fossils was what I wanted to do with my life. I made a collection then, which is now in the San Diego Natural History Museum and I still used it 50 years later to compare fossils I collected then with species found in the Pecten Reef calcarenite. I find it a bit curious that the fossils I collected when I was 8 years old are the same species I find at Pecten Reef. I believe they contain the same fossil fauna because they are the same age, although the were deposited under different environmental conditions.

My work with fossils has included siliceous microfossils while I was at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Washington, and Lamont Doherty in New York. From micropaleontology I transferred my interests to malacology (the study of mollusks) during the 1960’s and 70’s, a time of rapid land development in southern Orange County. This was an amazing time with fossils were being exposed daily. Fortunately I was teaching by then and could rally students to help salvage specimens on weekends. During this time I was able to spend a summer collecting in the Lias limestones of Germany and was overwhelmed with the beauty, diversity, and abundance of ammonites there. Most of the collection I made were left in a museum in Nürnberg .

Since retiring I have worked as a consultant, primarily to the City of Laguna Hills, and have developed a nice museum of local fossils and a strong paleontology program for the City. This has included a video about local fossil recovery and a fossil website http://www.gotfossils.com/.

Whether I am in a lab or in the field, working with fossil shells is a joy. Unlike vertebrate animals which can travel through changing environments, fossil mollusks are generally restricted to specific environments and can provide researchers with information about water depth, temperatures, current direction, salinity, water clarity, and much more. Hooray for mollusks.

Carol J. Stadum