bird specimens tray

Univeristy of Kansas specimen storage. A. Bentley

biocollections

Specimens from biocollections are uniquely valuable records of the natural history and environment from which they are collected.

 

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VertNet biocollections

What is housed behind museum doors?

Specimens:

Whole or parts of animals, including fossils, bones, teeth, pelts, feathers, skins and tissue; all provide clues about the evolution and natural history of species.

Associated Data:

  • Field Notes
  • Photographs
  • Video
  • Sound Recordings
  • Geospatial Data
  • Climate Data
  • Gene Sequences
  • Remote-sensing and Satellite Imagery
  • Scientific Literature

 

How do researchers use specimens?

Some of the traditional types of data that are gathered are:

  • body and limb length
  • weight
  • arrangement of landmark structures (morphometrics)
  • unique characteristics
  • xrays of the internal structures
  • dyes that bind to bone and cartilage differentially (clear and staining)
  • coloration
  • comparison of juveniles to adults (ontology)
  • demography
  • stomach contents
  • parasites
  • stable isotopes

Combining traditional xrays with high-resolution 3-D imaging are opening up new ways of analysing certain morphological structures.

Carbon-14 dating of paleontological specimens has been in use for over 50 years and remains a valuable tool today.

Chemical signatures can also be extracted; for example, radioactive signatures from Hiroshima and Chernobyl can be detected in specimens as isotopic signatures in the bones. Stable isotopes have been used to track migratory routes in birds.

Methods for extracting DNA from older specimens or formalin treated specimens continues to improve. Currently, many collections keep banks of frozen tissues for genetics work.

 

What do researchers find using specimens?

Biocollections are the building blocks for basic biological research, and are used widely in diverse fields such as:

  • taxonomy
  • systematics
  • ecology
  • physiology
  • genetics
  • medicine
  • environmental planning
  • invasive species
  • agriculture
  • conservation
  • education
  • climate change studies

Morphological and genetic studies of museum specimens have been used to discover new species and their evolutionary relationships. Genetics can be used to study the spread of disease, trace the timing of introductions of invasive species and crop pests, document range shifts in relation to climate change, identify areas of biological importance and high priorities for conservation.

Locality information associated with museum specimens is used to map species distributions. The coordinates where an animal was originally found allows researchers to overlay more information associated with that area, including climate, other animal distributions, habitat, human populations or any of the widely available geospatial data. Researchers can use these data to generate predictive models that identify other areas of suitable habitat and estimate how the range and location of a species or populations may change. These methods have developed into very powerful and useful tools for conservation research, especially for studying climate change.