[Nhcoll-l] [EXT]Re: How many specimens

[Derek Sikes]

For those interested in how to deal with numerous jars of
too-many-to-efficiently-count specimens: We often guess the count of the
contents (like the old game of guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar).

I was curious how good our guesses were, so just before the pandemic an
undergraduate looking for a museum project checked.

Our results were published in the Alaska Entomological Society Newsletter:
http://www.akentsoc.org/doc/AKES_newsletter_2020_n1_a08.pdf

Short answer: our guesses were on average under-counts of the number of
specimens.

"The sum of the original counts of the 1,099 vials in our sample was
272,033 specimens. Assuming our subsample was representative, we estimate
these 1,099 vials probably hold closer to 421,749 specimens."

-Derek

On Thu, Mar 17, 2022 at 11:57 AM Jean-Marc Gagnon <JMGAGNON at nature.ca>
wrote:

> Lennart,
>
>
>
> This is an interesting question, one that we (at CMN) tried to addressed a
> few years ago.
>
>
>
> I personally don’t like to refer to “number of specimens” in our
> collections since we don’t typically manage the number of specimens but
> rather the lots. Two fish samples with 10 and 20 specimens are pretty much
> managed the same way. But still, being a curator of invertebrate
> collections, it is difficult to properly express as a number the amount of
> copepods in a plankton sample (whether it is sorted by species or
> maintained as a faunal assemblage).
>
>
>
> However, the “total number of specimens” in collection is a value that is
> often used to represent the size of collections and to some extent, to give
> non-museum people a sense of how big natural history collections can be in
> comparison to an art museum, as an example. For that reason, our museum
> used to boast 10.4 millions specimens in our collections, a value
> calculated in the late 1990’s but without any indication of how that value
> was obtained.
>
>
>
> In 2016, we though it would be a good exercise to update that estimate and
> record the process so that it can be more easily updated in the future. We
> now have (or more precisely, state that we have) 14.6 millions
> specimens/objects in our collections, a number that we frequently use in
> our communication with government, the general public and potential donors
> to provide a reference in terms of magnitude.
>
>
>
> To reach that number, we needed to make a number of assumptions. These
> assumptions made sense at the time, and may not be the same as the one made
> explicitly or implicitly by other large museums like the Smithsonian (“more
> than 146 million objects and specimens”), the Natural History Museum (“some
> 80 million items”), or the Muséum national d’histoire naturel de Paris (“au
> total, 68 millions”).
>
>
>
> Assumptions and working principles the CMN collections:
>
>    - For collections like pinned insects, which typically work with
>    single specimens as a unit, we estimated of the total number of specimens.
>    Subsampling was used on occasion to obtain a better estimate.
>    - For collections like our Fish Collection, which is fully databased
>    and record the number of specimens per lot/sample, we could use the total
>    count reported from the database.
>    - For collections where the number of specimens per lot is greater
>    than one and not necessarily or consistently recorded, we either did
>    subsampling or assumed a conservative number per sample to obtain a better
>    estimate. For example, we typically use a conservative, average value of 10
>    specimens per lots for the Mollusc Collection.
>    - For collections like Vascular Plants and Mineralogy, where one could
>    assume that there is one specimen per sheet or one mineral per box,
>    subsampling showed that it can be more than 1. As a result, we used
>    different average counts for different portions of the collection, ranging
>    from 1 to 3 specimens per sheet or 1 to 1.5 specimens per mineral
>    collection.
>    - Coming back to the lots/samples with such large amount of specimens
>    in them that they could not be reasonably estimated (e.g., plankton
>    samples), as is the case for our Faunal Assemblage Collection, we resorted
>    to only reporting the number of lots/samples, which is obviously a huge
>    underestimation of the number of specimens.
>    - Finally, for our diatom/micro-algae collection, where the number of
>    specimens (i.e., cells and chains) can be in the millions, if not billions
>    per lot/sample, estimated number of specimens were obtained by
>    extrapolating from the portion examined on a slide or a SEM mounts to the
>    know volume examined. Therefore, in this instance, we kept the value at a
>    very conservative level (in the few millions), knowing that the real value
>    is probably in the multiple billions.
>
>
>
> As you can see, lots of steps and assumptions along the way. And is that
> 14.6 millions specimens a reasonable estimate for our museum? Probably not
> (it should be in the billions is we take all unicellular organisms into
> consideration, but at least we can back it up.
>
>
>
> I hope this helps.
>
>
>
> Jean-Marc
>
>
>
> *Jean-Marc Gagnon*, Ph.D. (he/him/his) (il/lui)
>
> Curator, Invertebrate Collections / Chief Scientist
>
> Conservateur, Collection des invertébrés / Expert scientifique en chef
>
> *Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature*
>
> 613 364 4066
>
> 613 851-7556 cell
>
> 613 364 4027 Fax
>
> jmgagnon at nature.ca
>
>
>
> *Adresse postale / Postal Address:*
>
> Canadian Museum of Nature     / Musée canadien de la nature
>
> P.O. Box 3443, Sta. D   / Casier Postal 3443, Succ. D
>
> Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4                / Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4
>
> Canada                         / Canada
>
>
>
> *Adresse de livraison / Courier Address : *
>
> 1740 Pink Road, Gatineau, QC, J9J 3N7
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *On Behalf Of *Macklin,
> James
> *Sent:* March 17, 2022 12:59 PM
> *To:* Derek Sikes <dssikes at alaska.edu>; Bentley, Andrew Charles <
> abentley at ku.edu>
> *Cc:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* [EXT]Re: [Nhcoll-l] How many specimens
>
>
>
> COURRIEL EXTERNE. Ne cliquez sur aucun lien ou pièce jointe à moins que
> vous ne connaissiez l'expéditeur.
>
> EXTERNAL EMAIL. Do not click any links or attachments unless you know the
> sender.
>
> This is a very challenging question and as Derek rightly points out,
> definitions and metrics matter! We should consider this a grand challenge
> and have a contest to see what kind of answers we get. Would need some good
> prizes though…
>
>
>
> But for now my thinking is that we just say we have ‘lots’! J lol
>
>
>
> JAmes
>
>
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *On Behalf Of *Derek
> Sikes
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 17, 2022 12:53 PM
> *To:* Bentley, Andrew Charles <abentley at ku.edu>
> *Cc:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] How many specimens
>
>
>
> It also depends on how one defines specimens.
>
>
>
> Some define a specimen as a catalog record, i.e. 1 *or more* specimens
> since some catalog records are for 'lots' e.g. 2 ants on 1 pin, or 15
> spiders in 1 vial.
>
>
>
> Thus, you will get very different numbers if you tally catalog records
> based on specimens, compared to tallying the actual specimens themselves.
>
>
>
> -Derek
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 17, 2022 at 6:16 AM Bentley, Andrew Charles <abentley at ku.edu>
> wrote:
>
> Lennart
>
>
>
> This is extremely difficult to estimate but estimates range into the
> billions (3-5 billion in various publications).  We can really only track
> digitized records and the best way to do this is through GBIF where
> specimen based records are around 216 million (observation records are
> close to 2 billion in comparison!!).
>
>
>
> [image:
> https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/GwHlBWgSSahK3K6RO4pue6K0rRlXR6uGxtmWn-V-DYerXzruT5eBr7ZpuiNVMSa4IB936_94wp6msqL-4Nh2L7-kvETPIoSaoatQle4tAH2rZJtE08VttHso6cQ8AgOLso0Wdoc]
>
>
>
> Hope that helps
>
>
>
> Andy
>
>     A  :             A  :             A  :
>  }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
>     V                V                V
> Andy Bentley
> Ichthyology Collection Manager
> University of Kansas
> Biodiversity Institute
>
> Dyche Hall
> 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
> Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
> USA
>
> Tel: (785) 864-3863
> Fax: (785) 864-5335
> Email: abentley at ku.edu
>
> ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3093-1258
>
> http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu
>
>     A  :             A  :             A  :
>  }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
>     V                V                V
>
>
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *On Behalf Of *Lennart
> Lennuk
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 17, 2022 3:51 AM
> *To:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* [Nhcoll-l] How many specimens
>
>
>
> Hi!
>
>
>
> Does anybody have lately calculated how many specimens are there in the
> natural history collections?
>
>
>
> Best regards!
>
> Lennart Lennuk
>
> Head of collections
>
> Estonian Museum of Natural History
>
> +372 6603404, 56569916
>
>
>
>
> <https://nature.ca/>
>
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> cmnEmailFooterDefault.
>


-- 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*Derek S. Sikes*, Curator of Insects, Professor of Entomology
University of Alaska Museum (UAM), University of Alaska Fairbanks
1962 Yukon Drive, Fairbanks, AK   99775-6960
dssikes at alaska.edu phone: 907-474-6278 he/him/his
University of Alaska Museum <https://www.uaf.edu/museum/collections/ento/>
-  search 357,704 digitized arthropod records
<http://arctos.database.museum/uam_ento>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Interested in Alaskan Entomology? Join the Alaska Entomological
Society and / or sign up for the email listserv "Alaska Entomological
Network" at
http://www.akentsoc.org/contact_us
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