[Nhcoll-l] Specimens vs assemblies

[Dirk Neumann]

Hi Paul,

from a database perspective, would this not just be a separate storage 
collection that would need to be entered for the associated species in 
their respective taxon-based databases?

In the case of some (Marine) parasites, it would also be very difficult 
to separate the different organisms, I think the key challenges from a 
collections management point of view are
- knowing that these specimens are there
- and where I could find them (if they are obviously not in the 
respective taxonomic collection, but still associated with the sea fan)

Also - very classical solution - you could created dummy lots without 
contents for the respective collections so that there is a physical 
representation of "the jar", and the printed label says says where to 
find the object.

Mixed samples (also: eDNA, soil samples) will be difficult to handle in 
taxon-based collections, but surely will increase (unsorted malaise 
traps returned from the field would in principle also belong into this 
category). We can handle this more easily now in our databases by 
setting respective references and internal linkages; this surely was 
more of a challenge back in the days of file cards and hand-written 
inventory book entries.

By separating them, you definitely loose "information" - I would keep 
them together, unless a specific (research) question requires 
"disconnection".

Hope this helps
Dirk


Am 16.11.2021 um 14:46 schrieb Callomon,Paul:
>
> Folks,
>
> I’m working with some interesting questions at the moment and thought 
> I’d ask for colleagues’ input. Look on it as broader service to 
> science or something.
>
>  1. I’m dealing today with a sea fan (Cnidaria: Alcyonacea) that bears
>     several wing oysters (Mollusca: Pteriidae) and barnacles
>     (Crustacea: Cirripeda) as well as a couple of tube worms
>     (Annelida: Polychaeta) and countless diatoms. As a collections
>     manager, do I physically separate the individual specimens and
>     send them off to their respective collections (General
>     Invertebrates [Cnidaria], Mollusca and General Invertebrates
>     [Crustacea] and [Annelida]) or preserve the assemblage intact? If
>     they were tigers and snails collected at the same spot, for
>     example, there would be no problem doing this; but snails don’t
>     live on tigers.
>  2. If I choose not to separate them (correctly, I think), then once I
>     catalog the individual taxa into their respective databases, into
>     which collection does the assemblage physically go? All four
>     epibionts are attached to the sea fan, so that would seem to have
>     the best claim to priority as it’s both a specimen in its own
>     right and a substrate for the others. The problem there is that
>     our General Invertebrates collection is not funded, whereas our
>     mollusk collection is. Our neontological “departments” are all
>     taxon-based and each has its own community of curators, managers,
>     associates and researchers as well as its own demands on space,
>     infrastructure and support.
>  3. Most museums divide their Recent collections by taxon as above.
>     However, this contrasts with Vertebrate and Invertebrate
>     Paleontology, which are pan-taxonomical disciplines. Our Recent
>     crabs, for example, go in the Crustacea collection, away from
>     their commensal mollusk chums, but fossil crabs and mollusks both
>     belong in a single Invertebrate Paleontology collection, while
>     fossil fishes and mammoths snuggle up in the Vertebrate
>     Paleontology collection.
>  4. How then does the existence and maintenance of neontological
>     taxon-based collections (Entomology, Malacology, Mammalogy etc)
>     configure science – does it encourage the emergence of museum
>     entomologists, malacologists and mammalogists over, say, benthic
>     ecologists?
>
> Paul Callomon
>
> Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates//
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University***
>
> 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
> /prc44 at drexel.edu/ <mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu>/Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 
> 215-299-1170/
>
>
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-- 


Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
Fax: 089 / 8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

Postanschrift:

Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
Zoologische Staatssammlung München
Dirk Neumann, Sektion Ichthyologie / DNA-Storage
Münchhausenstr. 21
81247 München

Besuchen Sie unsere Sammlung:
http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/

---------

Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

postal address:

Bavarian Natural History Collections
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology
Dirk Neumann, Section Ichthyology / DNA-Storage
Muenchhausenstr. 21
81247 Munich (Germany)

Visit our section at:
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