Náttúrufræðingurinn - 2000, Qupperneq 69

■ HEIMILDIR
Ingimar Óskarsson 1982. Skeldýrafána íslands,
2. og 3. útg. Leiftur, Reykjavík. 351 bls.
Jóhannes Björnsson 1977. Um örnefnaflutning á
Tjörnesi. Náttúrufræðingurinn 47. 31-32.
Warén, A. 1991. New and little known Mollusca
from Iceland and Scandinavia. Sarsia 76. 53-
124.
■ ENGLISH SUMMARY
The shell collection of Jóhannes
B/örnsson
Jóhannes Björnsson (1907-1998), a farmer at
Ytri-Tunga on Tjörnes, was a keen collector of
recent marine Icelandic molluscs. As he identi-
fied the species himself he gained an excellent
overview over the marine mollusc fauna of lce-
land which he finally knew thoroughly. He do-
nated his great collection to Safnahúsið in
Húsavík at its official opening. His collection
consists of 179 species of marine gastropods
frorn Icelandic waters and another 93 species
from elsewhere in the North Atlantic. There are
also 108 species of marine bivalves from Icelan-
dic waters and 32 species from elsewhere in the
North Atlantic. In his handbook on the Icelandic
marine mollusc fauna Ingimar Óskarsson (1982)
enumerated 171 marine gastropod species and
107 bivalve species from Iceland. This manifests
the high value of the collection of Jóhannes
Björnsson.
Additionally, the collection of invertebrates
comprises 26 species of terrestrial gastropods
and six species of freshwater gastropods, as well
as 13 species of freshwater bivalves, three spe-
cies of marine scaphopods, seven species of
polyplacophorans, five species of barnacles,
and four species of brachiopods.
Jóhannes Björnsson didn’t just collect recent
molluscs. He also collected fossils from the
Pliocene Tjörnes beds, especially when the
weather didn’t permit traditional farrn duties.
Finally, he succeeded in bringing together the
largest known collection of marine molluscs
from the lower part of the Tjörnes beds, in the
area between the rivers Kaldakvísl and
Hallbjarnarstaðaá. From this part of the Tjörnes
beds we previously knew about 35 species of
marine molluscs, but between 15 and 20 species
frorn the collection of Jóhannes Björnsson must
now be added to the fauna list. As these species
have never been found before in this part of the
layers they are a valuable addition to the fossil
marine faunal assemblages of the Tapes and
Mactra Zones of the Tjörnes beds. The identifi-
cation of the new species is not yet completed,
but this collection must certainly be taken into
consideration in future work on the fossil marine
molluscs from the lower part of the Tjörnes
beds.
PÓSTFANG HÖFUNDAR/AuTHORS ADDRESS
Leifur A. Símonarson
leifuras @ raunvis .hi. is
Raunvísindastofnun Háskólans/
Science Instilute
Jarðfræðahús Háskólans
IS-101 Reykjavík
Leifur A. Símonarson (f. 1941) lauk magistersprófi í
jarðfræði frá Kaupmannahafnarháskóla 1971 og
licentiat-prófi frá sama skóla 1978. Hann er prófess-
or í steingervingafræði við Háskóla Islands og hefur
einkum fengist við rannsóknir á tertíerflóru fslands
og sælindýrafánum frá síðari hluta tertíers, ísöld og
nútíma á íslandi og Grænlandi.
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