The malacological collection of the Kaunas Tadas Ivanauskas Museum of Zoology contains more than 60,000 shell specimens. The collection was formed through museum expeditions, scientific research, donations, and private collections acquired during the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.Important additions to the collection include the shell collection donated by Lithuanian-Australian collector Elena Liutikienė in 1973 and 1976, the Mykolas Gižas collection acquired in 1980, material collected during museum expeditions to the Magadan region (1987) and the Caribbean Sea (1991), the extensive Prof. Pranciškus Šivickis collection transferred from the Institute of Ecology in 2000 (over 23,000 specimens), and the valuable marine mollusc collection donated by collector V. Matuzevičius (over 10,000 specimens).The collection represents the phylum Mollusca, one of the most species-rich animal groups worldwide, including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial taxa. The majority of specimens belong to Gastropoda, with additional representation of Bivalvia and Cephalopoda.Geographic coordinates included in this dataset were assigned retrospectively based on locality names and historical collection labels. Therefore, the coordinates indicate approximate locality positions only and do not represent the exact collecting sites. Coordinate precision varies depending on the detail available in the original specimen labels and associated documentation.The dataset serves as an important source of historical and contemporary biodiversity data and contributes to the documentation of mollusc diversity in Lithuania and worldwide.

GBIF url: https://www.gbif.org/dataset/2b74f1d8-d1c0-4f88-a869-18507c65cf59
Citation: Martinaitis K, Patapavičienė A, Gurskas A (2026). Malacological Collection of the Kaunas Tadas Ivanauskas Museum of Zoology. Kaunas Tadas Ivanauskas Museum of Zoology. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/x38fh3 accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-06-11.