Dr. Timothy Pearce

Assistant Curator & Head, Section of MollusksCarnegie Museum of Natural History

 "Wily Land Snails of Pennsylvania:Where Do They Live and Which Are Rare?"Follow along with the slideshow HERE.

A local scientist's work is dramatically increasing what we know about Pennsylvania's 129 land snail species. For the Pennsylvania Land Snail Atlas Project, Dr. Timothy Pearce collected 17,472 records of Pennsylvania land snails from modern field work and museum specimens, documenting thousands of new county records. Many minute species are now known to be widespread, although they previously seemed to be rare. Dr. Pearce, assistant curator and head of the section of mollusks at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, will discuss his work in, "Wily Land Snails of Pennsylvania: Where Do They Live and Which Are Rare?" at Café Scientifique.

Dr. Pearce gained an important historical perspective on ecology while working toward a master's degree in snail paleontology at University of California at Berkeley, then he continued studying snail ecology for a PhD at University of Michigan. During a year-long post-doctoral study in Madagascar, he helped find more than 600 undescribed land snail species. During his first curator job at the Delaware Museum, he was awarded that institution's first National Science Foundation grant. His current research at Carnegie Museum of Natural History ecological snail studies in the northeastern and northwestern regions of the United States and in Colombia, South America.

Recorded Monday, August 10th, 2015 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA.