[Nhcoll-l] many specimens in one jar

[Dean Pentcheff]

We have a broad variety of marine invertebrate specimens that arrive as
anything ranging from individually identified specimens, to "lots" (as Andy
Bently described) that are allegedly all one species and collected in the
same collecting event, to unsorted or partially sorted lots of multiple
taxa from a collecting event. These lots commonly undergo subsorting or
have individual specimens removed for further study.

Our practice has been to consider whatever comes to us as "a specimen",
which gets a specimenID (linked to the collecting information). At any time
that an individual (or sub-lot) is identified or removed, it gets housed in
either a separate container or a vial/jar inside the original container,
and is issued a "child specimenID". The new specimenID points to the parent
specimenID in our database, and hence refers to its collection information,
and records the fact that the "child" specimen or lot is derived from the
parent lot. A child can be subdivided into more child specimens, ad
infinitum (though we hope not to go that far).

This gives us the flexibility of "spawning" sub-lots or individuals from
lots at any time, while keeping a clear trail of historical derivation.

However, few specimen collection database systems are built with this
schema in mind, so it may be challenging to implement in an off-the-shelf
specimen management system.

-Dean
-- 
Dean Pentcheff
pentcheff at gmail.com
pentcheff at nhm.org <dpentche at nhm.org>
https://research.nhm.org/disco



On Wed, Dec 7, 2022 at 6:41 AM Bentley, Andrew Charles <abentley at ku.edu>
wrote:

> 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
> 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:* 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
>
>
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