Baseline Morphology Measurements of the Giant False Donax (Iphigenia brasiliensis) in Florida and Distribution Across the Caribbean

The Giant False Donax, Iphigenia brasiliensis (Lamark, 1818), is a mollusk species endemic to the eastern coast of Brazil, throughout the Caribbean, and the southeastern United States. To date, only the South American populations have been studied extensively. The goal of this short paper is to provide baseline morphological measurements of the Giant False Donax from shells recovered from a coastal archaeological site on the Atlantic Ocean side of Florida, U. S. A. A total of 235 shells were measured for length, height, and weight, and the data were compared to existing size measurements from studies conducted in Brazil. Additionally, location data were gathered from the citizen science app iNaturalist to show the modern range of the Giant False Donax. Through iNaturalist, only a small number of Giant False Donax have been observed recently in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, possibly due to more familiarity with the species there. The morphological and species distribution data of this paper can be used by biologists and archaeologists alike for comparison.