The Malacology Collection in the Florida Museum of Natural History includes more than 250,000 lots, principally New World freshwater and land mollusks. This collection has grown rapidly during the past decade through integration of several large and important "orphaned" collections, abandoned by other universities, museums, and private collectors. Dr. Fred Thompson, Curator of the collection, proposes to add 159 specimen cabinets to the collection, all of which would be mounted on a compactor system that was recently shifted from the Museum's Archeology Department to Malacology. This shift has added 47% to the area allocated to Malacology, and the requested cabinets will provide expansion space for approximately 10 years and will allow orphaned collections to be captured without delay. The proposed project will enhance the growth and improvement of an important natural history collection. Researchers in systematic biology, ecology, population biology, and many other fields will benefit from the heightened accessibility of these research collections.
