[Nhcoll-l] Minimum viable mammal specimen

Tue Feb 13 12:01:39 EST 2024

Hello all,

Thank you all for your input on our 'minimum viable specimen' idea for bigger mammals. There seems to be agreement that preserving the whole skeleton is necessary, along with a skin sample (e.g., skin swatch, tanned hide) and tissues. While preserving complete specimens is certainly ideal and any missing elements diminishes a specimen's research capacity, preserving something is better than no specimen at all, especially in regard to opportunistically salvaged specimens that can be collected in large quantities and may not be in a condition to be preserved completely (thank you John Simmons for the very interesting paper on preserving herp skins on herbarium sheets, I like the creative thinking and am already wondering how transferable that is to small rodent skins). We will still strive for complete specimens, and apply less complete specimens where strategically possible to enhance our collection.

Again, thank you all for the engaging discussion. Feel free to continue to reach out to me with more thoughts/input.

Rebecca Hawkins (she/her)
Curatorial Associate
Sam Noble Museum
2401 Chautauqua Ave.
Norman, OK 73072
________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Rose Leach Basom <rose.s.leach at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2024 1:06 PM
To: Rob Robins <rhrobins at flmnh.ufl.edu>
Cc: Hendrickson Dean <deanhend at austin.utexas.edu>; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Minimum viable mammal specimen

Hi Rebecca,

I am glad that you are bringing up an important topic to the listserv; I think there are many excellent responses, so I won't repeat some of the points brought up in the thread. However, I do have a suggestion to consider for mammal prep that may or may not be feasible, I'm not sure of what resources you have available to you.

As someone who does a lot of osteological research, I think having CT scans, or even surface scans of bones provide a lot of research potential, even if you're unable to permanently house large collections of complete skeletal specimens. By having this digital data, there is a significantly increased level of accessibility for researchers who may be interested in your collections, but may not have the resources to travel to the institution. Of course that does provide its own set of challenges, as the more inexpensive surface scanners (~$2000) are limited in the size of the specimen, and you have to determine where to store the data and how to access the database. But definitely something to think about, particularly if you're interested in future research.

Best,
Rose

Rose Leach Basom
David and Jane Cohn Scientist
Science Museum of Virginia
2500 W Broad St
Richmond, VA 23220

On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 9:38 AM Rob Robins <rhrobins at flmnh.ufl.edu<mailto:rhrobins at flmnh.ufl.edu>> wrote:

Here’s a view into a little of the process (jars were barcode labeled in Dickinson Hall prior to packing and shipping to FM Special Collections building):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK8gyGRMYnc<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK8gyGRMYnc__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW0iAwsYNA$>

Best wishes,

Rob

Robert H. Robins

Collection Manager

Division of Ichthyology

[FLMNH Fishes logo email small]

Florida Museum

1659 Museum Rd.

Gainesville, FL 32611-7800

Office: (352) 273-1957

rhrobins at flmnh.ufl.edu<mailto:rhrobins at flmnh.ufl.edu>

The UF Fish Collection is moving:

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/fish/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/fish/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW0ieO9skQ$>

Search the Collection:

http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/fishes/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/fishes/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW3yqR-TwA$>

Search samples suitable for dna analysis:

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/grr/holdings/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/grr/holdings/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW3E75F5NA$>

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> On Behalf Of Hendrickson Dean
Sent: Friday, February 9, 2024 5:15 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Minimum viable mammal specimen

[External Email]

Thanks John, for mentioning our presentation/paper. With permission of SPNHC, we archived both a copy of the pdf and the recording of my presentation of it at:

Cohen, A. E., Hendrickson, D. A., & Casarez, M. J. (2022). Testing An Alternative Shelving Arrangement to Optimize Space and Task Efficiency in a Fluid Fish Collection. Presented by Hendrickson at SPNHC 2022, Edinburgh, Scotland. http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/44357<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/44357__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW2bcMvZVQ$>

Adam (TNHC_Fish_CM at austin.utexas.edu<mailto:TNHC_Fish_CM at austin.utexas.edu>) and I are both happy to answer questions and discuss this further. We’re still both very happy with the new system, and continue hoping one day we can convert the whole collection to this shelving method. He and his crew of volunteers and students have since done more testing of aspects of the system, and implemented some related experiments, all interesting and promising.

I’ll also point out that Rob Robbins et al in the Fish Collection at University of Florida<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/fish/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW0ieO9skQ$> converted that collection to a similar space-efficient system that shares some of the same features as ours, and, with their move, they also were able to barcode everything to add additional power and efficiency.

Dean

[Fishes of Texas]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.fishesoftexas.org/home/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW15TSuWUQ$>Dean A. Hendrickson (pronunciation<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://namedrop.io/deanhendrickson__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW1ldcUpRg$>), Ph.D. (he/him/his)

Curator of Ichthyology, Biodiversity Center<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW1TZoqFIg$>, University of Texas<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.utexas.edu/__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW12waeTZw$>,

Texas Natural History Collections,10100 Burnet Rd., PRC176/R4000

Austin, Texas 78758 USA

+1-512-656-9504 (cel.); Orcid<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7835-0295__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW3K7hRjxg$> / lab<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sites.cns.utexas.edu/hendricksonlab/home__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW01HCRRTA$> / collection<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://integrativebio.utexas.edu/biodiversity-collections/collections/ichthyology-fish__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW3ikRKm9A$> / zoom<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://utexas.zoom.us/j/7165800443__;!!GNU8KkXDZlD12Q!-SjRgu7g9Y37ZJwdrQ8ymeBAjJSIsDtun82dy1M5bN9hPmoKgdw6TWnRKKPnTiVsz7oLQh1IyJUoDW2ysBcu3A$>

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> On Behalf Of John E Simmons
Sent: Friday, February 9, 2024 12:19 PM
To: Hawkins, Rebecca K. <rkhawkins at ou.edu<mailto:rkhawkins at ou.edu>>
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Minimum viable mammal specimen

Thank you, Rebecca Hawkins, for bringing up this problem that we, the natural history collections community need to discuss.

I sympathize with the problem of crowded collections. I don’t know of a heavily used natural history collection anywhere that does not have this problem. However, I don’t think selecting a few essential parts of a specimen is a good idea. As several responses have already pointed out, there are research uses for all parts of a specimen, and we keep finding new uses for all parts of a specimen. The history of use of natural history collections tells us very clearly that there is an unending variety of ways to use specimens, particularly as advances in technology enable us to look at specimens in entirely new ways. Which brings us to a collecting conundrum—we should be making collections for future research, not just present research, but what will future researchers need? We don’t know. What we do know is that the large amount of literature on uses of natural history collections, taken all together, makes a strong argument for keeping all parts of organisms rather than just traditional preparations or reduced parts of specimens.

What museums should be doing is diversifying the types of preparations for specimens they are collecting now (natural history museums should be actively collecting to document the effects of climate change). Traditional study skins are still useful, but so are full skeletons, fluid-preserved specimens, and many other types of preparations. One of the problems is that modern collections reflect the traditions in the various “-ologies,” which is why mammal collections have traditionally had mostly skins and skulls, bird collections mostly skins with a partial skull intact, amphibian, reptile, and fish collections but whole animals in fluid, insects are pinned, and so on. These traditional preparations often fail to provide the kind of specimens needed for future research.

To address the very serious problem you have brought up about “specimen footprint” (that is a very descriptive term and we should all start using it)—there are several approaches to solving the problem. To mention just a few:

1-We need new designs for collection storage furniture to make better use of space while still allowing efficient monitoring of specimens (without having to pick them up or move them). We need to re-think drawer size and shape, cabinet configurations, the use of wide shelving vs narrow shelving, making better use of compactors, the size and shape of specimens and specimen containers, and so forth.

2-We can house specimen parts separately. Consider that most skulls are not the same shape as study skins, round jars are not necessarily the best shape to hold fluid-preserved specimens, skeletons need individual containers but study skins usually do not, etc.

3-This next suggestion often results in me being called a heretic, but it is, in fact, the easiest and most cost-effective way to make better use of space that we have right now. The suggestion is that we should abandon attempts at so-called “systematic arrangements” of collection storage arrays and instead develop collection storage arrays that are designed to better use space while providing the best storage environment for the collection (for example, bones tolerate a wider range of temperature and humidity than do skins). Particularly considering the flood of taxonomic changes resulting from molecular systematics, and the need to collect more specimens now to document climate change, our old collection storage arrays are a liability. We need to start by assessing the size and shape of specimens and containers, then consider the environmental requirements, and then develop storage arrays that are a better use of space and use the collection database to find specimen, not a faux systematic arrangement (no linear arrangement can be phylogenetic, and I have never seen a branching sequence of cabinets or shelving). Non-systematic arrangements can accommodate collection growth far more efficiently than traditional collection storage arrays.

There have been a few publications addressing the problem of crowded natural history collection storage. I will list a few below, and hope that people will add those that I have missed.

At the 2022 SPNHC meeting in Edinburgh there was a session on “Managing Long-Term Sustainability in an Uncertain Future” that included several presentations directly addressing the topic of best use of storage space. Not all of the speakers published papers based on their presentations, so if you are interested, check the abstracts from the meeting.

One last thing—before anyone rejects the idea of non-systematic arrangements for natural history collections, please take time to read the paper below by Cohen et al. listed below and look carefully at the amount of space they saved.

Thanks again to Rebecca for bringing up this very important topic for discussion.

--John

Callomon, P. 2019. An improved design for the storage of fluid-preserved specimens in small to medium-sized containers. SPNHC Connection 33(2):28-32.

Cohen, A. E., D. A. Hendrickson, and M. J. Casarez. 2019. An alternative shelving arrangement for natural history collection objects to optimize space and task efficiency. Collection Storage 33(1):55-72.

McAlpine, D. F., and F. W. Schueler. 2018. Herpetology meets botany: using herbarium methods to archive dried skins of frogs and snakes. Herpetological Review 49(2):236-238.

Simmons, J. E. 2013. Application of preventive conservation to solve the coming crisis in collections management. Collection Forum 27(1-2):89-101.

Simmons, J. E. and Y. Muñoz-Saba. 2003. The theoretical bases of collections management. Collection Forum 18(1-2):38-49.

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant

Museologica
and
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima

On Fri, Feb 9, 2024 at 9:43 AM Hawkins, Rebecca K. <rkhawkins at ou.edu<mailto:rkhawkins at ou.edu>> wrote:

Hello all,

Here at the Sam Noble Museum, we have been brainstorming about mammal prep types that would minimize a specimen's footprint in the collection space while maximizing research potential, which we have dubbed the 'minimum viable specimen' in conversation. Such a concept would be useful for larger mammals like coyotes, which—in large numbers—would take a lot of time and effort to prepare and would be spatially expensive to store as stuffed skins and skeletons. With minimum viable specimens, large mammals could be collected in larger sample sizes crucial for research like characterizing population variability and change over time.

Right now we are thinking that a minimum viable mammal specimen consists of a skull, skin swatch, and tissues (muscle and liver?), but would like to open this discussion to other museums as it could benefit all. Thanks!

Rebecca Hawkins (she/her)

Curatorial Associate

Sam Noble Museum

2401 Chautauqua Ave.

Norman, OK 73072

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