ABSTRACT
Solem provided an early estimate of the number of papers published per year on molluscs. Of the major molluscan classes, publications featuring gastropods were dominant until 2002 when they were supplanted by bivalve publications. Gastropod research productivity appears to have been more affected by the global recession of the 1990s than that of either bivalves or cephalopods. Basic studies include biological systematics, an essential component that underlies all of modern biology. Many molluscs are not even named, let alone had their relationships tested. Molluscan workers have been particularly active in this area, and some examples with published results include the Tropical Marine Mollusc Programme funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held in Thailand, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Since the inception of modern palaeobiology in the early 1900s, molluscs have been prominent foci in numerous research areas and time periods. Molluscan publications featuring fossils generally follow the track of other molluscan investigations.
