Abstract

The rapid loss of the biota in many drainage systems has been of great concern, especially as it relates to such benthic animals as the very rich and unique mussel fauna of the Alabama River drainages. Modern developments potentially affecting such rivers have now become of immediate concern. To understand the impact o f these changes this assessment is given, based in part on the excellent collections made by Herbert Huntington Smith. He was employed by the Alabama Museum of Natural History at Tuscaloosa. For about twenty years he and his wife, Daisy, were sponsored by a "Syndicate" organized and encouraged largely by Dr. Bryant Walker, a Detroit lawyer, who had a private mollusk museum. The collaboration of Bryant Walker with Dr. Arnold Edward Ortmann of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh was unusually close. Much of what is known about the systematics of mussels is due to their collective efforts. The historical records that follow are a tribute to their work and these data should serve as a basis for assessing the changes that have come about in this river system since the turn of the century.

How to Cite:

van der Schalie, H., (1981) “Perspective on North American Malacology I. Mollusks in the Alabama River Drainage; Past and Present”, Hello World! 71(1), 24-40.