| Name | Collection of marine gastropods |
| Alternative name | MCNB. Col. marine gastropods |
| Cite as | Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB). Collection of marine gastropods MCNB. Col. marine gastropods |
| Description | Collection of marine gastropods consisting of dry shells (99% of lots) and whole organisms preserved in ethyl alcohol 70%. In all, there are 189,500 specimens grouped in 23,100 lots. Most of the material belongs to the Museum's historical collection (original collection of Francesc Martorell and collections of Antoni de Samà, Artur Bofill, Joan Baptista d'Aguilar-Amat, Joan Rosals, Barcelona Royal Academy of Science and the Arts, Baltasar Serradell and the Jaume Bofill Institute, amongst others). More recent additions include specimens from the collections of Luis Gasull Martínez and Joan Rosal Sagalés. Geographically, the collection covers the whole world, but with a good selection of specimens from the Mediterranean (above all, Catalan and Balearic coasts), and from the coasts and archipelagos of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans (above all, the archipelagos of Southeast Asia). Wide range of taxa. The whole collection has been registered, documented and digitalized to specimen-lot level. Data from a part of the collection can be consulted on-line on the website of the Barcelona Natural History Museum and the portal GBIF. A sample of the marine gastropod collection has been displayed in the Museum's permanent exhibition and currently there are 40 dry and liquid lots on display in the Museum Blau. |
| Provenance | The first specimens come from the shell collection of Francesc Martorell i Peña and were part of the original collection of the Martorell Museum (1879). There are also specimens donated a few years later by Adolfo de Reynoso (1882) from his collection from the Philippine Archipelago. The collection also includes shells from the collection of Antoni de Samà (added in around 1914) corresponding to marine molluscs from the Catalan coast. The addition of the collections of Aguilar-Amat, Artur Bofill and Joan Rosals in 1917-1920 increased the Museum's collection of marine gastropods significantly. Further material came from other historical collections that were added subsequently, including specimens from the Barcelona Royal Academy of Science and the Arts (on permanent loan to the Museum since 1925), and the collections of Manuel de Chía (1923), Baltasar Serradell (1931), José Giner (1932) and the Jaume Balmes Institute (1936). The Royal Academy's collection includes donations from Jaime Basté, Adolfo and Eduardo Cháquert, Eduard Fontseré, Eusebio Mas and José María Salvañá. Also of interest are the donations from other collaborators and from other sources such as Marià Ferrer Bravo, Vicenta Gibert, Enric Gros and Josep Maluquer. There is also some material from expeditions such as those of Manual Martínez de la Escalera to Equatorial Guinea (1919), Aguilar-Amat to French Indochina (1929) and the various campaigns conducted in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco. The oldest specimens preserved in liquid originate from the Naples Zoological Station and the Santander Marine Biology Station, part of a purchase of marine fauna made by the Museum's oceanographic section (1916-1917). Under the direction of Artur Bofill i Poch (1892-1929) and then Joan Baptista d’Aguilar-Amat (1929-1936) the malacological section began to be reorganized and all the different collections were united and the nomenclature revised (all the original labels have been preserved). The most recent additions include specimens from the collections of Luis Gasull Martínez donated in 1983 when Rosario Nos was director) and of Joan Rosal Sagalés (donated 2000). These two collections contain 2,700 lots of marine gastropods with material mainly from the western Mediterranean. Francesc Uribe has been curator of the Museum's non-Arthropod Invertebrate collection since 1997. During his time in charge, the registration, documentation and computerization to specimen-lot level has been completed. |
