[Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

[Richard Pyle]

Hi All,

I've been in contact with a writer doing a story on how technology can
assist taxonomy.  One of the things he wants to understand better is the
difficulties associated with accessing type specimens.  In particular, he's
interested in these two questions:

(a) why the need to examine type specimens slows down the process of
taxonomy; and

(b) why museums seem reluctant (if they do) to send type specimens all over
the place to people.

We all know the importance of examining type specimens when trying to
determine whether something is a new species and/or when conducting
taxonomic work (and so does he). But he's trying to make sure he understands
correctly what the difficulties are in doing so.  On the first question, I
was able to give him my own perspective for the groups I work on (fish type
specimens are scattered all over the planet), but it would be good to get a
broader spectrum of input & experience on that.  For example, I know there
have been threads on Taxacom before about accessing types in private
collections, etc.

As for the second question, I explained to him that many Museums are (and
always have been) hesitant to send type specimens on loan, for fear they may
be lost, damaged, or never returned.  However, it has also been my sense
that this trend of reluctance has been increasing in recent years.  In
particular, I recall after the anthrax scare (soon after 9/11), the U.S.
postal service began irradiating mail, and (I think) some Museums (e.g.
Smithsonian) stopped sending type specimens (all specimens?) for a while.  I
don't have any objective data to support my sense of the increasing trend of
reluctance to send type specimens around the world, so I wanted to find out
if others have detected the same trend over the last 10-20 years, and how
this has affected the pace of taxonomy.

Many thanks in advance!

Aloha,
Rich

Richard L. Pyle, PhD
Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences
  and Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology
Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum
1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html