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Detailing three marine molluscan faunal provinces (Carolinian, Caribbean, and Brazilian), Biography and Biodiversity of Western Atlantic Mollusks examines the distribution and evolutionary patterns of the marine mollusks of the tropical and subtropical regions of the western Atlantic Ocean. It also covers the paleobiogeography of the tropical Americas, discussing the ancestral biogeographical regions that gave rise to the recent provincial and subprovincial arrangements.
These biogeographical patterns are essential for understanding the evolution of modern continental shelf marine faunas, as they reflect the environmental and climatological histories of the entire oceanic basin. The book's color plates make Biography and Biodiversity of Western Atlantic Mollusks a desirable resource for marine biologists and malacologists.
Introduction: American Molluscan Faunas in Time and Space
The Molluscan Provincial Concept in the Tropical Western Atlantic
History of Molluscan Biogeographic Research in the Tropical Western Atlantic
Definition of the Molluscan Faunal Province
Definition of the Molluscan Faunal Subprovince
Provinciatones
Geographical Heterochrony
Submergence and Endemic Bathyal Faunas
Western Atlantic Paleoprovinces and Paraprovincialism
Provinces of the Tropical Western Atlantic
The Carolinian Province
Faunal Analysis of Carolinian Mollusks
The Caribbean Province
Faunal Analysis of Caribbean Mollusks
The Brazilian Province
Faunal Analysis of Brazilian Mollusks
Western Atlantic Amphiprovincial Mollusks
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Georgian Subprovince
The Carolinas and Georgia Coastal Lagoons
The Carolinas and Georgia Offshore Scallop Beds
The Carolinas and Georgia Offshore Coral Bioherms
Georgian Deep-Water Areas
Palm Beach Provinciatone
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Subprovinces of the Florida Peninsula
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Floridian Subprovince
The Florida Bay Ecosystems
The Florida Keys Reef Tracts
Deep-Water Areas off the Florida Keys
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Suwannean Subprovince
Southern and Western Subprovinces of the Carolinian Province
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Texan Subprovince
The Texan Coastal Lagoons
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Yucatanean Subprovince
The Yucatanean Coastal Lagoons
Endemism on the Offshore Yucatan Banks and Deep-Water Areas
Northern Subprovinces of the Caribbean Province
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Bermudan Subprovince
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Bahamian Subprovince
Endemism on the Bahama Banks
Endemism in Bahamian Deep-Water Areas
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Antillean Subprovince
The Belizean Reefs and Eastern Yucatan Islands
Endemism in the Greater Antilles
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Nicaraguan Subprovince
Coastal Central America
Endemism on the Bay Islands of Honduras
Honduran and Nicaraguan Offshore Banks
The San Blas Archipelago
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Venezuelan Subprovince
The Golfo de Morrosquillo and Colombian Coast
Endemism along the Goajira Peninsula
The Golfo de Venezuela
The Venezuelan Deep-Water Areas
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Grenadian and Surinamian Subprovinces
The Lesser Antilles and Grenadines
Endemism on the Dutch ABC Islands and Los Roques Atoll
Endemism on Barbados
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Surinamian Subprovince
The Amazonian Faunal Barrier
Northern Subprovinces of the Brazilian Province
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Cearaian Subprovince
The Atol das Rocas and Fernando de Noronha Island
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Bahian Subprovince
The Abrolhos Archipelago and Reef Complexes
Endemism on Trindade Island
Molluscan Biodiversity in the Paulinian Subprovince
Endemism in the Cabo Frio Region
Endemism in the South Brazilian Bight
The Uruguayan Provinciatone
Bibliography
Appendix 1: Provincial Index Taxa
Appendix 2: Additions to Western Atlantic Molluscan Biodiversity
Index
Edward J. Petuch, Ph.D., is a professor of geology in the Department of Geosciences at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where he teaches courses on oceanography, paleontology, and physical geology. Petuch has collected fossil and living mollusks in Australia, Papua-New Guinea, the Fiji Islands, French Polynesia, Japan, the Mediterranean coast of Europe, the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize, Brazil, and Uruguay. This research has led to the publication of more than 100 papers. His 14 previous books are well-known research texts within the malacological and paleontological communities.
"Professor Petuch draws upon an extraordinary wealth of personal experience and many decades of field work studying both recent and fossil mollusks throughout the western Atlantic, and has produced a prolific body of publications on these faunas. [...] [He] is to be commended for clearly and succinctly defining a useful tool for quantifying faunal distinctions among geographic regions. This methodology can also be used to produce a series of testable hypotheses that will serve both as a foundation and as a point of departure for additional research into the effects of geography and ecology on the evolution and diversification of faunas."
– From the Foreword by M. G. Harasewych, Ph.D., National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
