Staff Profile Dr Ben Rowson
Principal Curator: Zoology
Contact Details
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NP
Phone: +44 (0)29 2057 3110
Staff Name
Job Title
Areas of Responsibility:
Qualifications, memberships and relevant positions
BSc (Hons) Environmental Biology (St Andrews); MSc Ecology (Bangor); PhD Systematics (Cardiff). Memberships: Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland; UNITAS Malacologica; Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA); Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales.
Positions: President and Honorary Non-marine Recorder (Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland).
Research Interests
Malacology (the study of molluscs) based on museum shell, anatomical, and DNA/tissue collections, from urban and rural Wales to tropical rainforests. Current research focuses on: past and present changes in the British slug and snail fauna, and its conservation; 2) alpha taxonomy and biogeography in eastern Africa, particularly of carnivorous “hunter snails” (Streptaxidae). Findings are or have been applied to producing field guides, detecting invasive species and plant pests, reconstructing prehistoric environments, conservation of rare species, and parasitology. Results are communicated through talks, events, teaching, social and traditional media, citizen science, and exhibitions as well as publication. Contract work has included surveys of rare species or vulnerable sites, webinars, archaeology, and IUCN Red List assessments.
Keywords
Taxonomy, systematics, phylogeny, Mollusca, Gastropoda, slugs, snails, collections, environmental history, biodiversity, biogeography, DNA barcoding, recording, invasive species, tropical forests, Africa.Links
Selected Publications
Rowson, B., Seddon, M. B., Tattersfield, P., & Lange, C. N. 2024. Snails of “sky islands” above an equatorial desert: terrestrial molluscs on four isolated mountain ranges in northern Kenya. African Journal of Ecology 62 (3): 13303. https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.13303
Rowson, B. 2024. Descriptions of four new higher taxa of “hunter snails” (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora: Streptaxidae) in the Afrotropics. Journal of Conchology 45 (1): 116–124. https://doi.org/10.61733/jconch/4513
Rowson, B., Law, M., Miller, J. M., White, T., Shipton, C., Crowther, A., Ndiema, E., Petraglia, M., & Boivin, N. 2024. A Quaternary sequence of terrestrial molluscs from East Africa: a record of diversity, stability, and abundance since Marine Isotope Stage 5 (78,000 BP). Archiv für Molluskenkunde 153 (1): 61–86. https://doi.org/10.1127/arch.moll/153/061-086
Walker, T., Rowson, B., & Gittenberger, A. 2024. Liardetia samoensis (Mousson, 1865) (Stylommatophora: Microcystidae): another hothouse mollusc new to Britain and the first record of this species outside Asia. Journal of Conchology 45 (1): 116–124. https://doi.org/10.61733/jconch/4515
Rowson, B., Powell, H., Willing, M., Dobson, M., & Shaw, H. 2021. Freshwater Snails of Britain and Ireland. Field Studies Council, Shropshire, UK. 192 pp.
Allen, A., Greig, C., Rowson, B., Gasser, R. B., Jabbar, A., Morelli, S., Morgan, E. R., Wood, M., & Forman, D. 2020. DNA Footprints: using parasites to detect elusive animals, proof of principle in hedgehogs. Animals 10 (1420): doi:10.3390/ani10081420
Rowson B., Ablett J., Gallichan J., Holmes A. M., Oliver P. G., Salvador A., Turner J. A., Wood H., Brown C., Gordon D., Hunter T., Machin R., Morgenroth H., Reilly, M. Petts R. & Sutcliffe R. 2018. Mollusca Types in Great Britain. Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales / Natural History Museum. Available online at https://gbmolluscatypes.ac.uk
Aziz, N. A. A., Daly, E., Allen, S., Rowson, B., Greig, C., Forman, D., & Morgan, E. R. 2016. Distribution of Angiostrongylus vasorum and its gastropod intermediate hosts along the rural-urban gradient in two cities in the United Kingdom, using real time PCR. Parasites & Vectors, 9, 56. doi:10.1186/s13071-016-1338-3
Owen, C., Rowson, B., & Wilkinson, K. 2016. First record of the predatory semi-slug Daudebardia rufa (Draparnaud, 1805) from the UK (Eupulmonata: Daudebardiidae). Journal of Conchology, 42 (3), 119-121.
Rowson, B. 2015. Mollusca. In George Smith and Elizabeth A. Walker. Snail Cave rock shelter, North Wales: a new prehistoric site. Archaeologia Cambrensis, 163, 99-131.
Rowson, B., & Wood, A.H. 2015. Shells from Alfred Russel Wallace in the National Museum of Wales. Mollusc World,37, 19-23.
Rowson, B. 2014. The Long Reach of the Ghost Slug, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales article
Rowson, B., Turner, J.A., Anderson, R., & Symondson, W.O.C. 2014. Slugs of Britain and Ireland: identification, understanding and control. Field Studies Council, Shropshire, UK, 140 pp.
Rowson, B., Anderson, R., Turner, J.A., & Symondson, W. O. C. 2014. The Slugs of Britain and Ireland: undetected and undescribed species increase a well-studied, economically important fauna by more than 20%. PLOS One,9 (3) e91907. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091907
Rowson, B. & Tattersfield, P. 2013. Revision of Dadagulella gen. nov., the “Gulella radius” group (Gastropoda: Streptaxidae) of the eastern Afrotropics, including six new species and three new subspecies. [PDF] European Journal of Taxonomy, 37, 1-46.
Rowson, B. & Van Goethem, J.L. 2012. A second remarkable slug and a thin-shelled Trochonanina snail from the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania (Stylommatophora: Helicarionoidea: Urocyclidae). Journal of Conchology, 41, 239-247.
Salvador, R.B., Rowson, B., & Simone, L.R.L. 2011. Re-writing the fossil history of Cerionidae (Gastropoda, Pulmonata); new family assignment of the Brazilian Paleocene genus Brasilennea Maury, 1935. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 77, 445-447.
Herbert, D.G., & Rowson, B. 2011. Pupa menkeana Pfeiffer, 1853, type species of the speciose land snail genus Gulella Pfeiffer, 1856: correction of longstanding misidentification and designation of neotype (Mollusca: Eupulmonata: Streptaxidae). African Invertebrates, 52 (2) 233-242.
Tattersfield, P., Rowson, B. & Gallichan, J. 2011. Bernard Verdcourt (1925-2011) – An Appreciation, Malacological Names and Bibliography. Journal of Conchology, 40 (6) 681-704.
Rowson, B., Warren, B.H., & Ngereza, C.F. 2010. Terrestrial molluscs of Pemba Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania, and its status as an “oceanic” island. ZooKeys, 70, 1-39.
Rowson, B., Tattersfield, P., & Symondson, W.O.C. 2010. Phylogeny and biogeography of tropical carnivorous land-snails (Pulmonata: Streptaxoidea) with particular reference to East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Zoologica Scripta, 50, 85-96.
Verdcourt, B., Wood, H, & Rowson, B. 2003. Thomas Pain (1915-2003). Journal of Conchology, 38, 179-191.