[Nhcoll-l] DNA samples suggestions

[Nezka Pfeifer]

Dear Karen and Lena,
While my experience with DNA sampling of taxidermy is minimal, often the
chemical process of taxidermy interferes/destroys viable DNA material, but
it has been done on some of the bird mounts (passenger pigeons) and a wolf
in our collection, and can be done on other specimens. It really depends on
the stability of the material that remains on the mount I believe, but
scientists on this list should correct me if that's not true.
In order to make some determinations about your collection, perhaps you can
reach out any naturalists/scientists/professors in biology departments at
your regional universities/colleges to see if this is sampling they are
interested in or if they could refer you to anyone that might be interested.
In the past, we've been contacted by researchers who were specifically
trying to locate taxidermy mounts in historic museum collections to carry
out their research so they already knew what they were up against when it
came to the chemical treatment and deteriorate of DNA material.
Hope this is somewhat useful,
Nezka


Nezka Pfeifer
Curator 
The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art
1901 Mulberry Street
Scranton, PA  18510-2390
p: 570.346.7186 ext. 512
f: 570.346.0652
www.everhart-museum.org 

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:21:39 +0000
From: Karen Morton <Karen.Morton at perotmuseum.org>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] DNA Samples
To: "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu" <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
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Dear List Members,

We have a very large taxidermy collection.  A huge portion of the collection
is made up of should mounts that rarely make an appearance in the exhibit
galleries.  Most of the specimens were donated to the museum in the 1960's
and 1970's by local big game hunters.  The museum is exploring its options
to deaccession this part of our collection but we are also interesting in
knowing if taxidermy mounts are viable specimens for DNA sampling.  If so,
what is the best way to approach this?  A lock of fur?  A skin sample? Etc.
There are significant African and Asian animals represented in the
collection and if they can provide any useful data for future use, we would
like to do all that we can to preserve the data without storing a few
hundred shoulder mounts.

Any advice on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
KAREN MORTON
Collections Manager
Perot Museum of Nature and Science
P 214.756.5722 |
karen.morton at perotmuseum.org<mailto:karen.morton at perotmuseum.org>

2201 N. Field Street, Dallas, TX 75201
P 214.428.5555 | F 214.428.5892| perotmuseum.org

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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:38:03 +0000
From: Lena Hernandez <LHernandez at themosh.org>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] DNA Samples
To: "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu" <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Message-ID: <9d771061b30941c7ac01cd804b639869 at MOSHDC1.themosh.local>
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I would also be interested in this.

Lena

Lena Hernandez
Collections Manager & Registrar

Museum of Science & History
1025 Museum Circle
Jacksonville, FL 32207
(904)396-6674 x212