[Nhcoll-l] Sand collection database?

[Callomon,Paul]

I'd be interested to see what folks say, as we have just such a collection here at the Academy too. Apparently sand collecting was a thing among the jet set once.
One use some of the samples have been put to was in a study of rheology (resistance) related to the hairs and spines on terrestrial crustacean legs. Sand of various grain sizes was used to see whether having such things on their appendages enabled crabs to run faster uphill. I never saw the results, though...

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org<mailto:callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170
President of the American Malacological Society for 2027


From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Heather Ouellette
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 12:39 PM
To: Natural History Collections Listserv <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Sand collection database?


External.
Hello all,
Recently I found that there is a collection of sand samples at Harbor Branch. There are almost 1,000 samples, from beaches on all 7 continents. All were collected from the 1960s through mid 1990s, by multiple individuals, and collated by Orville Brim. Most of them have detailed information about the collecting localities.

This is a unique collection, but I'm not sure how to share this collection and its data with the scientific community. Are there online geology databases like Symbiota/GBIF? Would this data be of use or interest to anyone?

Heather Ouellette
Research Collections Manager
FAU Harbor Branch


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