The birth of malacology. When and how?

In 1795, Georges Cuvier proposed a new classification of invertebrate animals based on anatomical data. He created a new concept of mollusks as representatives of a unique type of morphological organization of animals. Before Cuvier, the name “mollusks” was used only for cephalopods without external shells and slugs, whereas all shelled mollusks were placed in another taxon, Testacea. The Cuvier’s works (1795a, b, 1798) are considered here as the starting point of transformation of classical conchology (= study of shells) into modern malacology (= study of molluscous animals as whole organisms). This process ended in 1825 when the very term “malacology” was finally established by Ducrotay de Blainville.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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