Systematics, biogeography, palaeontology and biology of molluscs
A systematic and zoogeographical revision of North-Atlantic deep sea octopods has been continued, incorporating new and valuable material from the BIOFAR and BIOICE projects (B. Muus).
An illustrated catalogue on the Palaeocene bivalves from Nugssuaq, NW Greenland, has been completed; it includes 110 species, most of which are almost identical with recent species from the Caribbean, Panamanian Pacific, and Mediterranean seas. Work on bivalves from the Ikka Fjord, Greenland, has been initiated, a manuscript on the genus Mya has been completed (G.H. Petersen).
Egg capsules, larval shells and reproductive strategies of 36 species, representing 15 families, of marine prosobranchs have been studied during workshops in Hong Kong and Australia*. An extensive collection of 22 taxa of Pectinoidea from the Red Sea is being studied, aiming at a taxonomic revision with redescriptions of a number of species (J. Knudsen, with H.H. Dijkstra, Zoological Museum, Amsterdam). The book by F.M. Regenfuss (1758): "Choix de Coquillages et de Crustacés" has been translated into English and will be published on CD-ROM. A booklet on Bivalvia has been prepared for the OECD series "Catalogue of Main Marine Fouling Organisms"*. A study on distribution patterns among gastropods in the North Sea is near completion (J. Knudsen).
Studies on the systematics, phylogeny and evolution of the opisthobranch group Sacoglossa mainly based on material collected during international marine biology workshops have led to a cladistic analysis to generic level, with several proposed changes in the classification*. Opisthobranchs collected in Hong Kong, Australia, Guam, Thailand and Singapore have been described anatomically and their systematic and zoogeographic affiliations have been discussed* (K. Jensen, in part with J.B. Sigurdsson, National University of Singapore). A cladistic analysis of some Indo-pacific species of the sacoglossan genus Elysia has been initiated. An anatomical study of Tjaernoeia exquisita, a newly found micro-gastropod from Danish waters, has been initiated (K. Jensen).
The anatomy of the fissurellid prosobranch Scutus sinensis has been described*. Several species of the opisthobranch family Diaphanidae have been described anatomically, and the proposed position of the family as sister group of the Sacoglossa discussed* (K. Jensen).
An annotated checklist of Danish marine molluscs has been prepared (K. Jensen and J. Knudsen)*.
Phylogeny of the opisthobranch family Diaphanidae and taxonomy and zoogeography of the genus Diaphana have been studied, including new material from Greenland and the BIOFAR project. Tectibranch gastropods from BIOFAR and BIOICE have been studied with the aim of producing a faunistic catalogue of the tectibranch species occurring along the Greenland-Scotland Ridge (T. Schiøtte).
The immigration into Denmark of the razor clam Ensis americanus has been studied*. The distribution of the softshell clam Mya arenaria along the US Atlantic coast has been investigated* (E. Rasmussen, with R.W. Heard, Gulf Coast Laboratory, Georgia).