CBRISC - Search Localities

THESE DATA ARE NOT COMPLETE! As of April, 2002, the CBRISC database contains in excess of 6,000 documented occurrences of intertidal species throughout Southern California. At present, we are only serving documented occurrence data for eight species of gastropods (Acanthinucella spirata, A. paucilirata, A. punctulata, Fissurella volcano, Lottia gigantea, Mexacanthina lugubris, Tegula aureotincta, and T. funebralis). These are the species for which we have the most complete data. For each of these species, the CBRISC database contains all occurrences documented in the collections of our target natural history museums, with the exception of The National Museum of Natural History. In addition, the CBRISC database contains occurrences documented by more than 30 publications. As the CBRISC database becomes more complete, we will serve additional data. Our goal is to have our entire database directly accessible for dynamic searches by the public. In addition, we will serve interactive maps (under construction) and a complete cross-references list of rocky intertidal species and localities throughout Southern California (under construction).

THE DATA BEING SERVED FOR EACH SPECIES consist of a list of documented occurrences by locality and date of collection. The search output also contains two columns of dates entilted Earliest* and Latest*, which refer to the earliest and latest dates that can be inferred for the date of collection or observation. These inferred dates are important because a considerable fraction (roughly 40 percent) of the museum material for the species we have looked at do not have precise dates of collection listed. This is especially true for the oldest specimens. We have estimated the earliest and latest dates of collection by relying on information regarding the collectors and/or the former collections to which the specimens belonged. For instance, we have gathered biographical information (birth, death, earliest and latest years of documented collection) for more than 230 individuals who have collected molluscs in Southern California. Similarly, we have recorded the earliest and latest known dates of collection for specimens previously stored in more than 50 (mostly private) collections that are presently housed in major museums.

THE SPECIFIC SET OF RULES THAT WE USE TO INFER DATES are as follows: If there is a known date of collection, then the Earliest* and Latest* inferred dates are equal to the actual date. If the actual collection date is not known, then notes associated with the specimen are considered next. For instance, if a specimen contains the note, "collected in the 1880's", then the Earliest* and Latest* values are 1880 and 1889, respectively. If there is no relevant note associated with a specimen, then information about the collector (the earliest and latest documented collections by that collector) is used. If there is no collector data, then values for Earliest* and Latest* are taken from information associated with the former collection to which the specimen belonged (again, the earliest and latest years of documented collection that are associated with that particular collection). Finally, if there is no information for former collection, collector, specimen, and no actual date of collection, then the value "-999" is used for Earliest*, while the value "2001" is used for Latest*.