Museum Collection in InvertEBase

This week, the Museum collection data set was integrated into InvertEBase. InvertEBase is a specimen data portal supporting a growing network of natural history collections focused on the study of invertebrate animals, with the exception of terrestrial arthropods (insects, spiders, and relatives).

Click on the image to see list of InvertEbase collections; on the Collections page, click on "Search" on right-hand side to look for records.

InvertEBase provides a mechanism for network members to manage, enhance, and share biodiversity data and associated images with scientists and the general public. Most partner institutions are based in North America but the geographic scope, reflecting the combined collection holdings, is global.

Excerpt from the Alphabet Cone (Conus spurius) records listing from the Museum collection.

The recent incorporation of the Museum collection data into InvertEBase is associated with the National Science Foundation-funded project “Mobilizing Millions of Mollusks from the Eastern Seaboard (ESB).” All institutional collections participating in the ESB project are engaged or will be engaging with InvertEBase in the near future.

Existing images of the Lightning Whelk from all InvertEBase collections and observations. The first seven images are from the Museum data set. Click on image to see all images for this species.

The Museum presence in InvertEBase is distinguished by the inclusion of circa 3,000 multi-photo composite images of Eastern Seaboard (mostly from Florida) shells and mollusks. The illustration above shows images of the Lightning Whelk, Sinistrofulgur sinistrum, present in all InvertEBase collections and observations. Click on that image to see all images for this species. Then, click on "Open Interactive Map" to see an interactive, collections-based map of the geographical distribution of the Lightning Whelk.

Distribution of the Lightning Whelk based on InvertEBase collections data. Click on map to zoom and interact.