Dr. Daniel Graf is an expert on the global diversity of freshwater mussels, a group of bivalve mollusks found throughout the world. He is one of the few scientists studying the ecology and evolution of these animals in tropical areas.

In August 2010, Dr. Graf joined an expedition to sample fishes and mollusks in the upper Amazon Basin of Peru. At one site in the Rio Itaya near Iquitos, by feeling around in the muddy river bottom with hands and feet, at least two species new to science were discovered. Back in the lab, those species will be formally described and named, and their DNA will be analyzed to discover where they fit in the phylogeny of Neotropical freshwater mollusks.

Find out more about Dr. Graf’s research at the MUSSEL Project Web Site.