A zoological specimen is an animal or part of an animal preserved for scientific use. Various uses are: to verify the identity of a (species), to allow study, increase public knowledge of zoology. Zoological specimens are extremely diverse. Examples are bird and mammal study skins, mounted specimens, skeletal material, casts, pinned insects, dried material, animals preserved in liquid preservatives, and microscope slides. Natural history museums are repositories of zoological specimens
Bird and mammal specimens are conserved as dry study skins, a form of taxidermy. [1] The skin is removed from the animal's carcass, treated with absorbents, and filled with cotton or polyester batting (In the past plant fibres or sawdust were used). Bird specimens have a long, thin, wooden dowel wrapped in batting at their center. The dowel is often intentionally longer than the bird's body and exits at the animal's vent. This exposed dowel provides a place to handle the bird without disturbing the feathers. Mammal study skins do not normally utilize wooden dowels, instead preparators use wire to support the legs and tail of mammals. Labels are attached to a leg of the specimen with thread or string. Heat and chemicals are sometimes used to aid the drying of study skins.
Osteological collections consist of cleaned, complete and partial skeletons, crania of Vertebrates, mainly birds and mammals. They are used in studies of comparative anatomy and to identify bones from archaeological sites. Human bones are used in medical and forensic studies.
In museum collections it is common for the dry material to greatly exceed the amount of material that is preserved in alcohol. The shells minus their soft parts are kept in card trays within drawers or in glass tubes, often as lots (a lot is a collection of a single species taken from a single locality on a single occasion). Shell collections sometimes suffer from Byne's disease which also affects birds eggs. The study of dry mollusc shells is called conchology as distinct from malacology (wet specimens).
Most hard-bodied insect specimens and some other hard-bodied invertebrates such as certain Arachnida, are preserved as pinned specimens. Either while still fresh, or after rehydrating them if necessary because they had dried out, specimens are transfixed by special stainless steel entomological pins. As the insect dries the internal tissues solidify and, possibly aided to some extent by the integument, they grip the pin and secure the specimen in place on the pin. Very small, delicate specimens may instead be secured by fine steel points driven into slips of card, or glued to card points or similar attachments that in turn are pinned in the same way as entire mounted insects. The pins offer a means of handling the specimens without damage, and they also bear labels for descriptive and reference data.
Once dried, the specimens may be kept in conveniently sized open trays. The bottoms of the trays are lined with a material suited to receiving and holding entomological pins securely and conveniently. Cork and foam plastics are convenient examples. However, open trays are very vulnerable to attack by museum beetle and similar pests, so such open trays are stored in turn inside glass-topped, insect-proof drawers, commonly protected by suitable pesticides or repellents or barriers. Alternatively, some museums store the pinned specimens directly in larger trays or drawers that are glass-topped and stored in cabinets.
In contrast to such dried specimens, soft-bodied specimens most commonly are kept in "wet collections", meaning that they are stored in alcohol or similar preservative or fixative liquids, according to the intended function.
Small specimens, whether hard or soft bodied, and whether entire, dissected, or sectioned, may be stored as microscope slide preparations.
"Wet" specimen collections are stored in different solutions. A very old method is to store the specimen in 70% ethanol with various additives after fixing with formalin [2] or in these days sometimes with a salt-solution. [3] Some methods are very useful, because the color can be preserved. (Salt-)Solutions like this are Jores, [4] Kaiserling [5] and Romhányi. [6] Modern specimens are stored in borosilicate glass due to its chemical and thermal resistance and good optical clarity.
Minimum data associated with zoological specimens is the place and date of collection, attached to the specimen by a label. Additional information is the name of the collector and the habitat. Tissue from specimens may be saved for genetic studies (molecular data, DNA). Depending on the animal group, other data may be included, for instance in bird collections the bird’s breeding condition, weight, colours of its eyes, bills and legs and nature of the stomach contents.
A single specimen may be a composite of preparations sharing a unique number. An example would be a vertebrate with an alcohol-preserved skin and viscera, a cleared and stained head, the post-cranial dried skeleton, histological, glass slides of various organs, and frozen tissue samples. This specimen could also be a voucher for a publication, or photographs and audiotape.
A voucher is a representative specimen of the animal used in a study, such as a specimen collected as part of an ecological survey or a specimen which was the source of DNA for a molecular study. Voucher specimens confirm the identity of the species referred to in the study. They are a backup against misidentification, changing species concepts which mislead results. Type specimens are a special type of voucher specimen used in taxonomy.
Museum zoological specimens may have historic significance. For example, the specimens collected by Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius during their Brazil Expedition (1817–1820) are housed in the Munich Zoology Museum.
Museums make extensive use of models. When these are accurate they are considered to be specimens in their own right. Examples are the glass invertebrates of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. [7]
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word taxidermy describes the process of preserving the animal, but the word is also used to describe the end product, which are called taxidermy mounts or referred to simply as "taxidermy".
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the animal hatches.
Insect collecting refers to the collection of insects and other arthropods for scientific study or as a hobby. Most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified without the examination of minute morphological characters, so entomologists often make and maintain insect collections. Very large collections are conserved in natural history museums or universities where they are maintained and studied by specialists. Many college courses require students to form small collections. There are also amateur entomologists and collectors who keep collections.
The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
Joseph Grinnell was an American field biologist and zoologist. He made extensive studies of the fauna of California, and is credited with introducing a method of recording precise field observations known as the Grinnell System. He served as the first director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley from the museum's inception in 1908 until his death.
The Natural History Museum at Tring was the private museum of Lionel Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild; today it is under the control of the Natural History Museum, London. It houses one of the finest collections of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles and insects in the United Kingdom. It was known as the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum until April 2007. The museum is located on Akeman Street, in Tring, Hertfordshire.
The Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) is a natural history museum housed in the University Museum Building, located on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features 16 galleries with 12,000 specimens drawn from the collections of the University's three natural history research museums: the Harvard University Herbaria, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Harvard Mineralogical Museum.
The Musée zoologique de la ville de Strasbourg is a natural history museum managing and displaying the zoological collections of the city of Strasbourg. It is housed in a historical building of the University of Strasbourg. The museum is closed since September 2019, and until 2025 for renovation and enlargement.
Bird collections are curated repositories of scientific specimens consisting of birds and their parts. They are a research resource for ornithology, the science of birds, and for other scientific disciplines in which information about birds is useful. These collections are archives of avian diversity and serve the diverse needs of scientific researchers, artists, and educators. Collections may include a variety of preparation types emphasizing preservation of feathers, skeletons, soft tissues, or (increasingly) some combination thereof. Modern collections range in size from small teaching collections, such as one might find at a nature reserve visitor center or small college, to large research collections of the world's major natural history museums, the largest of which contain hundreds of thousands of specimens. Bird collections function much like libraries, with specimens arranged in drawers and cabinets in taxonomic order, curated by scientists who oversee the maintenance, use, and growth of collections and make them available for study through visits or loans.
The University Museum of Zoology is a museum of the University of Cambridge and part of the research community of the Department of Zoology. The public is welcome and admission is free (2018). The Museum of Zoology is in the David Attenborough Building, formerly known as the Arup Building, on the New Museums Site, just north of Downing Street in central Cambridge, England. The building also provides a home for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, a biodiversity project.
The Natural History Museum in Pavia, Italy is a museum displaying many natural history specimens, located in Palazzo Botta Adorno. Founded in 1775, it was one of the oldest museums of natural history in Europe. It currently forms the University of Pavia museum network, along with 5 other museums — the University History Museum, Museum of Electrical Technology, Museum of Archeology, Museum Camillo Golgi and Museum of Mineralogy.
The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is a natural history museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located on the campus of the University of British Columbia. Its 20,000 square feet of collections and exhibit space were first opened to the public on October 16, 2010; since then it has received over 35,000 visitors per year.
The Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo is a public natural history museum located in the historic Ipiranga district of São Paulo, Brazil. The MZUSP is an educational and research institution that is part of the University of São Paulo. The museum began at the end of the 19th century as part of the Museu Paulista; in 1941, it moved into a dedicated building. In 1969 the museum became a part of the University of São Paulo, receiving its current name.
The Estonian Museum of Natural History is the Estonian national museum for natural history. It is situated in Tallinn's Old Town.
The conservation and restoration of feathers is the practice of maintaining and preserving feathers or featherwork objects, and requires knowledge of feather anatomy, properties, specialized care procedures, and environmental influences. This practice may be approached through preventive and/or interventive techniques.
The conservation and restoration of fur objects is the preservation and protection of objects made from or containing fur. These pieces can include personal items like fur clothing or objects of cultural heritage that are housed in museums and collections. When dealing with the latter, a conservator-restorer often handles their care, whereas, for the public, professional furriers can be found in many neighborhoods.
The conservation of taxidermy is the ongoing maintenance and preservation of zoological specimens that have been mounted or stuffed for display and study. Taxidermy specimens contain a variety of organic materials, such as fur, bone, feathers, skin, and wood, as well as inorganic materials, such as burlap, glass, and foam. Due to their composite nature, taxidermy specimens require special care and conservation treatments for the different materials.
The conservation and restoration of insect specimens is the process of caring for and preserving insects as a part of a collection. Conservation concerns begin at collection and continue through preparation, storage, examination, documentation, research and treatment when restoration is needed.
Philip Jackson Darlington Jr. was an American entomologist, field naturalist, biogeographer, museum curator and zoology professor, known for his toughness and determination on field expeditions.
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