2024 was a year of taking strong and steady steps forward, with efforts from all corners of the globe, attempting to add value to molluscan biodiversity research on a daily basis.

A few achievements from this year:

• 66 094 actions were performed (creation of new names, checking of names, or changes made to existing names)
• 30 161 names were created (21 479 names of fossil taxa; 8 682 names of extant taxa), of which 10 634 are accepted (2 576 names of fossil taxa; 8 058 names of extant taxa), bringing the total of names in Molluscabase to 339 562 species names (130 267 accepted) (numbers as per 20/12/2024)
• 26 009 Distributions were entered, 12 603 Attributes were added, and 1 887 images were added.
• The new Molluscabase home page was launched in May, including a messaging feature in the form of news items
• A new social media platform was created in the form of a Facebook-group to allow sharing news with the public
• A new thematic editor joined our team, focusing on distributions of recent Mollusca in Iceland
• Numerous “homonymous” authors were checked and initials added to distinguish them
• All “Author A in Author B”-cases were cleaned up
• And many, many more …

Some projects are still ongoing and will take some more time:

• Ensuring all existing names refer to an original name
• Ensuring all existing original names have an original description linked, and all subsequent combinations have a reference to a published source
• Ensuring all “homonymous” authors can be distinguished through their initials
• Providing information on type localities for all accepted species
• Continuously adding to the inventory of fossil mollusks

We’ve come a long way, yet still have a long way to go … but we’re getting closer to our objective every day.

On behalf of the Editor community,
Chris Vos