Hard data on the contribution of amateurs

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By coincidence, the same question has been posed recently on PaleoNet and
Conch-L, the list server of the Conchologists of America
<CONCH-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>--just in time for discussions at Paleo21.

John Hooker asked (8/28/97),
I am very interested in knowing what percentage of the taxonomies of
conchology have been compiled by amateurs, and whether any/all were
collectors themselves. Is this just a nineteenth century thing, or does
that Victorian amateur enthusiasm and attention to detail live on today?

Carole P. Marshall <Marshalldg@AOL.COM> responded (8/31/97):
  According to a note that Gary Rosenberg sent me last year, in Florida alone
out of 293 new species of GASTROPODS named, over 103 were named as a direct
result of the work of Extra Academics. (AKA Amateur) He sent me a list as
well. This, of course, does not include the rest of the world, or Bivalves
or other groups. I also found another dozen or so that Gary missed.
  I am proud to say that several of these new species were named as a direct
result of past and present members of the Palm Beach County Shell Club and
the Broward Shell Club.
  I heartily agree that the work of Extra Academics is very important to the
contributions of malacology.
 In Paleontology, the contributions of the extra academics has been
instrumental in finding and naming many many new species in the recent
past. Believe me, they will not all be found to be synonyms for something
else. The APAC pits of Sarasota were a prime example of the importance of
the work of extra academics.

(Reposted by permission of Carole P. Marshall.)

As this note was taken out of context, here is some background which will
be unnecesssary for many of you. Gary Rosenberg is Curator of Malacology
and  Invertebrate Paleontology, Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia. He was able to answer this question by means of the large
database that he maintains on Western Atlantic mollusks. The APAC pits, now
closed, were among the world's prime collecting sites for Pliocene
mollusks. For several years, they were the happy hunting ground of fossil
collectors, amateur and professional alike, in southern Florida.

By anyone's standards, a third of the new species named in an animal group
is a substantial contribution. There can be no doubt that amateurs benefit
malacology!

Andrew K. Rindsberg                     Telephone (205) 349-2852
Curator, Paleontological Collection     Telefax (205) 349-2861
Geological Survey of Alabama            <arindsberg@ogb.gsa.tuscaloosa.al.us>
P.O. Box O
Tuscaloosa, AL 35486-9780, USA