Senior Research Scientist and Curator of Mollusks, Center for Biodiversity

Research Associate:

• Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
• Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
• Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh

• Illinois Endangered Species Technical Advisory Committee (ESTAC) on Invertebrates
• Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee - Ad Hoc Mussel Management Committee
• Indiana Endangered Mollusk and Crustacean Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)
• Illinois Wildlife Preservation Fund Advisory Committee
• Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society (Executive Board & President 2001)
• American Malacological Society - Council 1996-1998; Conservation Committee.
• American Fisheries Society, Endangered Species Committee, Endangered Freshwater Mussels Subcommittee.
• Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee MICRA

My research interests are in the areas of conservation, systematics and ecology of freshwater mollusks and fishes and the protection of freshwater habitats; primarily streams.

Lydeard, C., and K.S. Cummings (eds.).  2019.  Freshwater Mollusk Families of the World.  Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.  264 pp.

Pfeiffer, J.M., D.L. Graf, K.S. Cummings, and L.M. Page.  2018.  Molecular phylogeny and taxonomic revision of two enigmatic freshwater mussel genera (Bivalvia: Unionidae incertae sedis: Harmandia and Unionetta) reveals a diverse clad of Southeast Asian Parreysiinae.  Journal of Molluscan Studies  84(4):404-416.

Williams, J.D., A.E. Bogan, R.S. Butler, K.S. Cummings, J.T. Garner, J.L. Harris, N.A. Johnson, and G.T. Watters.  2017.  A revised list of the freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionida) of the United States and Canada.  Freshwater Mollusk Biology and Conservation  20(2):33-58.

Tiemann, J.S., A.E. Haponski, S.A. Douglass, T. Lee, K.S. Cummings, M.A. Davis, and D. Ó Foighil.  2017.  First record of a putative novel invasive Corbicula lineage discovered in the Illinois River, Illinois, USA.  BioInvasions Records  6(2):159-166.

Cummings, K.S., H.A. Jones, and M. Lopes-Lima. 2016. Rapid bioassessment methods for freshwater molluscs. pp. 185-207 in T.H. Larsen (ed.). Core standardized methods for rapid biological field assessment. Conservation International, Arlington, VA 209 p.

Cao, Y., A. Stodola, S. Douglass, D. Shasteen, K.S. Cummings, and A. Holtrop. 2015. Modeling and mapping the distribution, diversity and abundance of freshwater mussels (Family Unionidae) in wadeable streams of Illinois, U.S.A. Freshwater Biology 60(7):1379-1397.

Serrand, N., and K.S. Cummings. 2014. Occurences of exogenous freshwater mussel shells (Bivalvia: Unionoida) during the Precolumbian ceramic age of the Lesser Antilles. pp. 65-76 in Archaeomalacology: Shells in the Archaeological Record. K. Szabó, C. Dupont, V. Dimitrijević, L. Gómez Gastélum, and N. Serrand (eds.).  BAR International Series 2666.

Cao, Y., J. Huang, K.S. Cummings, and A. Holtrop.  2013.  Modeling changes in freshwater mussel diversity in an agriculturally dominated landscape. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 32(4):1205-1218.

Huang, J., Y. Cao, and K.S. Cummings. 2011. Assessing sampling adequacy of mussel diversity surveys in wadeable Illinois streams. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 30(4):923-934.

Graf, D.L., and K.S. Cummings. 2011. Freshwater mussel (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionoida) richness and endemism in the ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar based on comprehensive museum sampling. Hydrobiologia 678(1):17-36.

Graf, D.L., and K.S. Cummings. 2010. Comments on the value of COI for family-level freshwater mussel systematics: a reply to Hoeh, Bogan, Heard & Chapman. Malacologia 52(1):191-197.

Tiemann, J.S., and K.S. Cummings. 2010. New record for the freshwater snail Lithasia geniculata (Gastropoda: Pleuroceridae) in the Ohio River, IL, with comments on potential threats to the population. Southeastern Naturalist 9(1):171-176.

Cummings, K.S., and D.L. Graf. 2010. Mollusca: Bivalvia. pp. 309-384 in J.H. Thorp and A.P. Covich (eds.). Ecology and classification of North American freshwater invertebrates. Third Edition. Academic Press, Inc.

Sneen, M.E., K.S. Cummings, T. Minarik, Jr., and J. Wasik. 2009. The discovery of the nonindigenous, mottled fingernail clam, Eupera cubensis (Prime, 1865) (Bivalvia: Sphaeriidae) in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (Illinois River Drainage), Cook County, Illinois. Journal of Great Lakes Research 35(4):627-629.

Graf, D.L., and K.S. Cummings. 2007. Review of the systematics and global diversity of freshwater mussel species (Bivalvia: Unionoida). Journal of Molluscan Studies 73(4):291-314.

Graf, D.L., and K.S. Cummings. 2006. Palaeoheterodont diversity (Trigonoida + Unionoida): What we know and what we wish we knew about freshwater mussel evolution. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 148(3):343-394.

Lydeard, C., R.H. Cowie, W.F. Ponder, A.E. Bogan, P. Bouchet, S.A. Clark, K.S. Cummings, T.J. Frest, O. Gargominy, D.G. Herbert, R. Hershler, K.E. Perez, B. Roth, M. Seddon, E.E. Strong, and F.G. Thompson. 2004. The global decline of nonmarine mollusks. Bioscience 54(4):321-330.

Williams, J.D., M.L. Warren Jr., K.S. Cummings, J.L. Harris, and R.J. Neves. 1993. Conservation status of the freshwater mussels of the United States and Canada. Fisheries 18(9):6-22.

Cummings, K.S., and C.A. Mayer. 1992. Field guide to freshwater mussels of the Midwest. Illinois Natural History Survey, Manual 5. 194 pp.

Warren, R.E., K.S. Cummings, and A. Mitchell. 1996. Mussels of Illinois Poster. Special Project between Illinois State Museum, Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Education, and Illinois Department of Transportation. August 1996.
 
Warren, R.E., K.S. Cummings, S.A. Ahlstedt, P.A. Morrison, J.M. Butler, and R.S. Butler. 2000. Freshwater Mussels of the Ohio River: Silent messengers of the rivers health - Poster. Special Project Ohio River Valley Ecosystem Team.

M.A. in Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1983
B.S. in Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1980