Molluscan Collections

Part of the dry mollusc collection and visitor work space.

The Molluscan collections in Amgueddfa Cymru — National Museum Wales number some 180,000 lots from many different collections which have been amalgamated into one systematic sequence.

The most historically important part of the collections is the Melvill-Tomlin collection which came to us in 1955 and contains over 1,000,000 specimens!

One of the main tasks over the past 22 years has been to database the Melvill-Tomlin collection, and this has now been achieved! It contains some 84,000 lots which you can search for on this site, and a further 45,000 from other collections.

Over 5,000 type, figured and cited lots have already been identified, and 3,300 of these are from the Melvill-Tomlin collection alone. Many have still not been recognised and we estimate there may be up to 10,000 in total. If you think we may hold a type lot then search the database, but if nothing comes up first time try a more general search. The specimens you are looking for may not have been recognised as types yet.