2014/04/04 by Juan Francisco Araya, Ricardo Catalán · 2 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Mollusks and Parasites Studies #Marine Ecology and Invasive Species #Marine Biology and Ecology Research
paper · doi:10.3897/zookeys.398.4282
openalex publication_date 2014/04/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Terrestrial mollusca are sparsely studied in Chile and, for the first time, a formal record of the diversity of land snails in northern Chile is reported. Coastal and desertic areas in the Region of Atacama, in the border of the Atacama desert and the Pacific Ocean, were surveyed with the aim to describe the presence and distribution of this poorly known fauna. Of the fourteen species recorded, the geographic distribution records for nine species are extended, and some taxa are recorded for the first time since their original descriptions. All, except one, of the fourteen terrestrial molluscan species occurring in the area are endemic to Chile; they are all terrestrial species, most of them have a restricted geographic distribution, and none of them is currently protected by law. The results reveal that the region of Atacama has one of the most diverse terrestrial snail biodiversity in Chile, ranking only after the Juan Fernandez Archipelago. Distribution records of all the studied species and a taxonomic key are also provided.