Guide to collections


Collection of marine molluscs from the Mediterranean Sea

Name Collection of marine molluscs from the Mediterranean Sea
Alternative name MCNB. Col. marine molluscs Mediterranean Sea
Cite as Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB). Collection of marine molluscs from the Mediterranean Sea
MCNB. Col. marine molluscs Mediterranean Sea
Description Collection of marine molluscs from the Mediterranean consisting of dry shells (99% of lots) and whole organisms preserved in ethyl alcohol 70º. In all, there are 162,000 specimens grouped in 12,900 lots. The collection includes specimens from the classes Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Cephalopoda, Polyplacophora and Scaphopoda, above all from the first two of these classes. Most wet specimens are either Gastropoda or Cephalopoda. Wide taxonomic range of Gastropoda and Bivalvia. The geographical range of the collection includes the Mediterranean coasts and islands, with an especially good selection of specimens from the western Mediterranean including Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Most of the material belongs to the Museum's historical collection (original collection of Francesc Martorell and collections of Artur Bofill, Antoni de Samà, Joan Baptista d'Aguilar-Amat, Joan Rosals, Barcelona Royal Academy of Science and the Arts, Baltasar Serradell and the Jaume Balmes Institute). Recent donations include the collections of Luis Gasull Martínez and Joan Rosal i Sagalés, which represent together a sizeable proportion of the collection’s material (around a third of all lots), principally from the Balearic Islands and the Catalan coast. All of the 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 selection from this collection has been displayed as part of the Museum's permanent exhibition.
Provenance The first specimens came from the shell collection of Francesc Martorell i Peña and were part of the original collection of the Martorell Museum (1879). Specimens from the collection of Antoni de Samà (donated around 1914) of marine molluscs from Catalonia also form part of the collection. The addition of the shell collections of Artur Bofill, Joan Baptista d'Aguilar-Amat and Joan Rosals in 1917-1920 increased the Museum's collection of marine fauna from the Mediterranean significantly. Further material came from other historical collections that were added subsequently, including specimens from the collections of Barcelona Royal Academy of Science and the Arts (on permanent loan to the Museum since 1925), Baltasar Serradell (1931) and the Jaume Balmes Institute (1936). The Royal Academy’s collection also includes donations from José Basté, Artur Bofill, Eduard Fontseré, Eusebio Mas, José Moll and José María Salvañá. Also of interest are the donations made by collaborators and other sources related to the Museum (Marià Ferrer Bravo, Vicenta Gibert, Carmen Giménez, Goñi, J. Gros, Josep Maluquer and Santiago Novellas, amongst others). The oldest wet specimens are part of the collection of the Oceanographic Section that was inaugurated at the beginning of 1917, which includes a group of lots from the Naples Zoological Station. Under the direction of Artur Bofill i Poch (1892-1929) and then J. B. 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). More recent additions include the collections of Luis Gasull Martínez (donated in 1983 when Rosario Nos was Museum Director) and of Joan Rosal i Sagalés, donated in 2000. The donation of these two collections greatly increased the Museum’s marine collection from the Mediterranean, above all from the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. 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.