Biodiversity in Jamaica

[Gary Rosenberg]

I would like to hear from researchers who have studied the biota of Jamaica
about the diversity of species (or lack thereof) in their taxon of choice.

I'm working on a manuscript on diversity of terrestrial mollusks on the
island, which has more than 500 described endemic species of land snails
(and another 360 synonyms). Jamaica does not seem to be a hot spot for
diversity of other major groups, except perhaps millipedes. Data on
diversity in other groups, including plants, might help constrain hypotheses
accounting for diversity of land snails.

Also, if anyone is interested in examining non-molluscan material that I
might collect in subsequent field work, please contact me.
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Gary Rosenberg                              rosenberg at say.acnatsci.org
Malacology & Invertebrate Paleontology      gopher://erato.acnatsci.org
Academy of Natural Sciences                 http://www.acnatsci.org
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway              Phone 215-299-1033
Philadelphia, PA 19103-1195 USA             Fax   215-299-1170