About | Marla Coppolino

About me

I love nature and illustrating the natural world. My happy place comes at the intersection of finding living things under logs and rocks, sorting through leaf litter, art, illustration, writing, and studies of nature in general, from microscopic life to ecosystems. I'm passionate about communicating why nature matters and how it works through my illustrations and writing.

I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences and a Master of Science in Zoology.

I'm a member of:

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators

Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

American Malacological Society

I'm a research associate at:

Delaware Museum of Nature & Science

Paleontological Research Institution

I serve as Secretary and Treasurer of the

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Finger Lakes Chapter

Are you a scientist, author, teacher, or someone
in need of illustrations or infographics?

Please contact me to chat about your next project --
I look forward to helping you communicate your ideas!

My illustration work:

New species descriptions
Animal behaviors
Extinct species illustration reconstructions
Science infographics
Taxa include but not limited to: mollusks, insects, rotifers, general invertebrates, birds

Published Illustrations and Papers

Illustrations published in (selected list)

Anderson, Roland C. And Ronald L. Shimek. (2010). Arm Deflation in the Rare Thorny Sea Star, Poraniopsis inflatus (Asteroidea: Poraniidae), A Defensive Response to other Sea Stars? The Canadian Field-Naturalist, July-Sept.

Barnett, Cynthia. (2021). The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Bartolozzi, L. (2003). Contribution to the knowledge of the Tasmanian lucanids, with a description of two new species of Lissotes Westwood, 1855 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae). Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali Monografie (Turin), 35, 329-342.

M. G. Harasewych. (2021). The egg capsules and prehatching juveniles of Ampulla priamus (Gastropoda: Volutidae: Scaphellinae) from the eastern Atlantic. The Nautilus 135(3–4):59–66.

Hickman, C. S. (2012). A new genus and two new species of deep-sea gastropods (Gastropoda: Vetigastropoda: Gazidae). The Nautilus, 126(2), 57-67.

Hickman, C. S. (2013). Crosseolidae, a new family of skeneiform microgastropods and progress toward definition of monophyletic Skeneidae. American Malacological Bulletin, 31(1), 1-16.

Hickman, C.S. (2016). New species of deep-water gastropods from the Indo-west Pacific Region (Gastropoda: Vetigastropoda: Seguenzioidea: Calliotropidae) with a geologic and biogeographic perspective. The Nautilus. 130(3):83 - 100.

Hickman, C. S. (2017). Nemocataegis, a new genus and two new species of relictual seguenzioid gastropods (Vetigastropoda: Cataegidae) and a geobiological framework for integrating patterns in Deep Marine Wallacea. The Nautilus, 131(3), 151-162.

Hickman, Carole S. (2023). Paleocene marine bivalves of the deep-water Keasey Formation in Oregon, Part II: The pteriomorphs. PaleoBios 40(5): 1-51.

Mikkelsen, Paula M., Rüdiger Bieler, Isabella Kapier, Timothy A. Rawlings. (2006). Phylogeny of Veneroidea (Mollusca: Bivalvia) based on morphology and molecules. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 148, 439–521.

Örstan, Aydin. (2018) Taxonomic morphology of the genus Adineta (Rotifera: Bdelloidea: Adinetidae) with a new species from a suburban garden. Zootaxa. 4524 (2): 187–199.

Thomas, R. D., Runnegar, B., & Matt, K. (2020). Pelagiella exigua, an early Cambrian stem gastropod with chaetae: lophotrochozoan heritage and conchiferan novelty. Palaeontology. 63(4), 601-627. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pala.12476

von Cosel, Rudo and Alan J. Kohn Rudo. (2012) Research Note: Mating Behavior of Conus cingulatus Lamarck, 1810. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 1–3. doi:10.1093/mollus/eys032

Selected Articles

Behold the Lowly Land Snail, by Marla Coppolino, in The Land Steward newsletter of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, April 2016.

Nature and the Microcosm of Snails, by Marla Coppolino, in The Land Steward newsletter of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, October 2020.

Perez, K.E. and J.R. Cordeiro, Eds. 2008. A Guide for Terrestrial Gastropod Identification. Marla L. Coppolino, Illus. American Malacological Society.

http://northamericanlandsnails.org/publications/AMS_Workbook_KEP_FINAL.pdf

Coppolino, M.L. (2009). Land snail abundance and diversity with associated ecological variables in six southern Illinois counties. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Unpublished thesis. Link

Coppolino, M. L. (2010). Strategies for collecting land snails and their impact on conservation planning. American Malacological Bulletin, 28(2), 97-103.

https://doi.org/10.4003/006.028.0225

Pending publication: Chapter on slugs as agricultural pests, Compendium of Strawberry Diseases and Pests, Third Edition. Editor Greg Loeb.