[Nhcoll-l] many specimens in one jar

[Bentley, Andrew Charles]

Lennart

This is a common issue in ichthyology collections that, unlike most other collections that work on a specimen basis, work on a lot basis where all specimens of the same species, collected at the same time and place by the same person are cataloged as a single unit in the database and a count is associated with the type of unit (ethanol specimens, skeletons, tissues, etc.) usually known as preparations.  So, we have a single catalog number in our database for a lot that may have anywhere from 1 to hundreds of specimens.  You can see an example of this here for one of the specimens in my collection:  https://ichthyology.specify.ku.edu/specify/bycatalog/KUI/22858/.  In this example you will see that I have 80 ethanol specimens and 6 cleared and stained specimens all cataloged under the same catalog number – 22858.  If a specimens is reidentified from that lot I can re-catalog it as a separate number and change the counts accordingly.  This also allows me to loan individual specimen(s) from a lot.  What this does not allow me to do however, is store unique information about each individual specimen in a lot which is sometimes useful – e.g. where a tissue has been taken from an individual or it has been imaged or CT scanned.  In those cases we use individual tags (with a tissue number) for specimens to indicate this.

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<x-apple-data-detectors://9/>
Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561<x-apple-data-detectors://9/>
USA<x-apple-data-detectors://9/>

Tel: (785) 864-3863<tel:%28785%29%20864-3863>
Fax: (785) 864-5335<tel:%28785%29%20864-5335>
Email: abentley at ku.edu<mailto:abentley at ku.edu>
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3093-1258
http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu<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: Wednesday, December 7, 2022 1:44 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] many specimens in one jar

Hi!

What is your practices preserving many specimens in one jar. It is quite impossible to mark them all with ID ohter than butting every specimen separately into glasstube. What might be the problems if there are for example 10 individuals of Palaemon in one jar and the ID-s are only on the main label?

Should we count each individual as specimen or should we take them as unit and describe in database how many individuals one unit holds?

Best regards!
Lennart Lennuk
Head of collections
Estonian Museum of Natural History
+372 6603404, 56569916

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20221207/853c927c/attachment.html>