GEIGER, D.L.: Russel Zimmer’s contribution to the biology of non-tentaculates; a malacological perspective

Russ ran an atypical university laboratory. There was no common group goal, no mandatory subject to be studied, no lab meetings. Instead, Russ encouraged his students to follow their own interests, though with a slight disproportionate favor for the tentaculates. Over the years students have worked besides on phoronids and bryozoans, for example, on stomatopods, vampyromorphs, and abalone.
As an example of work carried out in Russ’ lab, I present part of my thesis, namely the biogeography of world-wide abalone. Three hypotheses for the origin of abalone (Tethys, Indo-Pacific, Pacific Rim) were evaluated using a Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity based on over 4,000 museum records that were personally verified. The Indo-Pacific origin is best supported, although the Pacific Rim hypothesis cannot be discounted. Additional insight from the specimens in the Australian Museum Sydney will be presented. The implications for the age of origin of Haliotidae as compared to the fossil record of other vetigastropod families shows, that although the oldest abalone fossil date from the uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichian), the origin of the family must date back as far as the mid Triassic.