[Nhcoll-l] How many specimens

Bentley, Andrew Charles abentley at ku.edu
Thu Mar 17 12:58:26 EDT 2022


Yes, the whole lot based collection scenario is also a complicating factor.  For instance, our fish collection here at KU only has about 43,000 catalog records (which is reflected as 43,000 records in GBIF) but we have 680,000 specimens!!

Andy
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Andy Bentley
Ichthyology Collection Manager
University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute
Dyche Hall
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Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561<x-apple-data-detectors://9/>
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From: Derek Sikes <dssikes at alaska.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2022 11:53 AM
To: Bentley, Andrew Charles <abentley at ku.edu>
Cc: Lennart Lennuk <lennart.lennuk at loodusmuuseum.ee>; 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<mailto: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!!).

[https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/GwHlBWgSSahK3K6RO4pue6K0rRlXR6uGxtmWn-V-DYerXzruT5eBr7ZpuiNVMSa4IB936_94wp6msqL-4Nh2L7-kvETPIoSaoatQle4tAH2rZJtE08VttHso6cQ8AgOLso0Wdoc]

Hope that helps

Andy
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Andy Bentley
Ichthyology Collection Manager
University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute
Dyche Hall
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
USA

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>
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http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu<http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu/>
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From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto: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<mailto: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

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