Specimens and Lab in Bologna

This is the new lab that I worked in separating Gastropods and Bivalves and then identifying species for each sample. To the right on the table is where I separated Gastropods and Bivalves by hand and I used the microscope to go through the sample to find small/tiny shells that I missed. Then after I would use the microscope to identify species and count the number of species in a sample. In a sample of 100 shells, it would take me 30 minutes to accomplish this process.

The lab used to be located in this room to the left and below. But on March 25 I came to the lab in the morning and saw that the roof had collapsed. Specifically on top of our specimens! Below is where I had put the separated samples and this is where the majority of the roof had fallen. Some samples were destroyed (three) but I managed

to recover most of them.

Here is an example of the samples separated into Gastropod and Bivalve. Inside the paper bags is the individual sample from a certain well depth that was sampled every 5-10 cm increments.

Heleobia/Ventrosia stagnorum is a common gastropod species found in lagoonal environments in the Po Plain.

Abra segmentum is a very common bivalve occurring in lagoonal settings. They are very delicate and it is very rare to find them as whole shells, usually they are found as unique fragments.

Lentidium mediterraneum is the most abundant and common bivalve in open marine inner/outer shelf environments. They are very tiny, but are robust and whole shells are easy to recover. Within one sample, 1,000s can be found, which makes counting them a pain.