The Annual Award

Our award for the best initial contribution to malacology during 1998 is made to Mikael Thollesson of Göteborg University (now at the National Museum of Natural History), for his thesis Nudibranch Systematics and Molecular Data , which included five papers either published or in press, in such prestigious journals as the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Zoologica Scripta and our own Journal.

Dr Thollesson's publications cover an impressive range. In his studies of nudibranchs he has used the more traditional approaches of fine anatomy and allozyme electrophoresis to discriminate a pair of sympatric sibling species of European Dendronotus. He has also employed molecular sequence data from mitochondrial genes to investigate the phylogeny of the dorids. One surprising finding is that the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene, hitherto considered useful only at low taxonomic levels because of its rapid evolution, does also provide phylogenetic information at the higher level of the whole euthyneuran clade.

In addition, his thesis demonstrates a remarkable grasp of the philosophical complexities of the species concept and its application in phylogenetic taxonomy, and also of the theory of phylogenetic analysis of molecular datasets.

David Reid

Sir Charles Maurice Yonge Award

The Society's Sir Charles Maurice Yonge Award is given each year to the most outstanding paper on bivalves to be published in the Journal of Molluscan Studies. This year the prize has been awarded to Alexandre Soares, Robert Callahan and A. De Ruyck (all of the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa) for their paper entitled "Microevolution and phenotypic plasticity in Donax serra Roding (Bivalvia: Donacidae) on high energy sandy beaches" (Journal of Molluscan Studies 64, 407-421).

Soares et al. undertook a careful morphometric analysis of juvenile and adult individuals of the surf clams Donax serra from both west and east coasts of South Africa in relation to their position on the shore. They found distinct differences between the morphologies of the clams living on opposite sides of the Horn, which they attribute to directional selection on the adults and maintained by geographical isolation. Differences in sub-tidal and intertidal morphologies are believed to be adaptive, relating to the need for stability in the former and need for mobility in the latter environment. This demonstration of phenotypic plasticity has obvious interest to malacologists but I suspect should have wider appreciation amongst those interested in microevolution in other taxa.

Liz Harper

Centenary Research Grant Awards 1999

Fourteen applications were received for The Society's Research Grant Awards, which are intended to enable applicants to carry out a piece of research (suitable for publication in the Journal of Molluscan Studies) which they might not otherwise be able to do.

The standard of applications was generally high, and covered a wide range of Malacological topics. Council accepted the recommendation of the panel (Dr David Reid, Dr Mark Davies and Professor Robert Cameron) that two awards (£500 each) should be made to:

1. Dr Eunice Pinn of the University of Southampton, for a project entitled "Larval settlement and recruitment in boring bivalve populations" to enable her to pay for travel, equipment and photography.

2. Dr Marco Oliviero of Rome 3 University, for a project entitled "Molecular phylogenetics of the coral-eating coralliophilid gastropods", to pay for the necessary chemicals.

In some cases, the panel considered that the applications did not make it clear what specific and additional work would result from The Society's award (where the project was part of a much larger investigation), while in others, particularly field-based projects, it was not always clear what the aims and objectives were. Council has issued revised instructions for applicants, but these merely re-emphasize the original aim of the awards.

Robert Cameron