Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Invertebrate Paleontology Collection

Specimen Records: 4,456

Media Records: 1,150

iDigBio Last Ingested Date: 2026-02-24

The Academy of Natural Sciences' Invertebrate Paleontology collection is the oldest of its kind in the country, with a history that dates to the Academy's founding. One of its notable founders, Thomas Say (1787-1834), was a researcher specializing in mollusks, as well as recent and fossilized insects and other invertebrates. The ANSP Invertebrate Paleontology collection is estimated to contain over 1 million specimens, including 5,000 type specimens from more than 100 authors. Many of these authors were early and influential figures in American and British paleontology. Some significant contributors to both the type and general collections include Timothy A. Conrad, William M. Gabb, Henry C. Lea, Isaac Lea, Samuel G. Morton, Axel A. Olsson, Anne Harbison, and Henry A. Pilsbry. The collection is particularly strong in Cenozoic and Cretaceous mollusks from the New World, especially those found in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains; it also includes Quaternary mollusks from around the globe and Mesozoic specimens from England. Notably, approximately 75% of the collection consists of molluscan fossils.

Contacts

Name	Alejandra Martinez-Melo
Role	Collections Manager
Email	am5258@drexel.edu

Name	BDIM Account
Role	none
Email	ans_bdim@drexel.edu

Name	Alejandra Martinez-Melo
Role	Collections Manager
Email	am5258@drexel.edu

Name	ANS BDIM
Role	Administrator
Email	ANS_bdim@drexel.edu

Data Corrected
Data Use
Raw

This table shows any data corrections that were performed on this recordset to improve the capabilities of iDigBio Search. The first column represents the correction performed. The last two columns represent the number and percentage of records that were corrected. A complete list of the data quality flags and their descriptions can be found here. Clicking on a data flag name will take you to a search for all records with this flag in this recordset.

Flag	Records With This Flag	(%) Percent With This Flag
idigbio_isocountrycode_added i	4445	99.753
dwc_continent_added i	4440	99.641
dwc_datasetid_added i	2856	64.093
dwc_parentnameusageid_added i	2856	64.093
dwc_taxonid_added i	2856	64.093
dwc_taxonomicstatus_added i	2856	64.093
gbif_canonicalname_added i	2856	64.093
gbif_genericname_added i	2856	64.093
gbif_taxon_corrected i	2856	64.093
gbif_reference_added i	2568	57.63
geopoint_low_precision i	1852	41.562
dwc_multimedia_added i	1700	38.151
dwc_scientificnameauthorship_replaced i	1487	33.371
rev_geocode_eez i	1319	29.601
gbif_vernacularname_added i	1251	28.075
dwc_order_replaced i	1099	24.663
dwc_taxonrank_replaced i	936	21.005
taxon_match_failed i	722	16.203
dwc_originalnameusageid_added i	626	14.048
dwc_family_replaced i	213	4.78
geopoint_datum_missing i	153	3.434
dwc_genus_replaced i	140	3.142
dwc_specificepithet_replaced i	72	1.616
dwc_order_added i	33	0.741
dwc_specificepithet_added i	12	0.269
dwc_taxonremarks_added i	10	0.224
dwc_country_replaced i	7	0.157
dwc_family_added i	6	0.135
dwc_class_replaced i	4	0.09
dwc_stateprovince_replaced i	4	0.09
dwc_infraspecificepithet_added i	2	0.045
dwc_infraspecificepithet_replaced i	1	0.022
rev_geocode_mismatch i	1	0.022

Month of	Search	Download	Seen	Records Viewed	Media Viewed
03 / 2025	4,740,515	10,962	2	0	0
04 / 2025	89,511,991	23,003	533	1	0
05 / 2025	93,395,745	0	971	1	0
06 / 2025	100,561,258	19,915	1,701	4	0
07 / 2025	13,247,100	8,309	10	0	0
08 / 2025	112,187,359	11	387	6	0
09 / 2025	168,287,292	1,856	582	25	11
10 / 2025	721,219,277	71,516	3,249	17	5
11 / 2025	659,554,665	43,592	1,287	107	61
12 / 2025	870,579,118	7	9,936	357	273
01 / 2026	306,320,185	10,771	558	30	15
02 / 2026	437,224,826	10,194	4,013	68	53
03 / 2026	157,220,919	3,582	316	23	7

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Recordset

Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Invertebrate Paleontology Collection

Contacts