[Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

Thu Nov 26 22:16:52 CST 2009

Agreed - it is 'extreme' - but its prevalence in hominid systematics
makes it a really important example.

John Grehan 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Thorpe [mailto:s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz] 
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 10:01 PM
To: John Grehan; TAXACOM
Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

John is correct about access to fossil hominid types sometimes being
denied, but it is an extreme example.

Some of you might not be aware that perhaps 80% or so of all New Zealand
beetle types are in the British Museum, and they will only usually lend
out 6 at a time, which can make doing revisions very tricky if it is a
big genus and you really need to see all the types at once. The best
option is for the "mountain to come to Mohammad", so research money
often goes on travel costs to visit overseas museums which have the
types.

I remember reading a disturbingly amusing anecdote in some book on
weevils saying that all the types of the relevant group were destroyed
while in the post, when the mail truck backed over the parcel containing
them! Another good one is an elderly entomologist I know who was boiling
a specimen in KOH to prepare genitalia, when he got distracted by the
phone! He later said "it'll be alright as long as nobody tries to do
genitalia!"

________________________________________
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of John Grehan
[jgrehan at sciencebuff.org]
Sent: Friday, 27 November 2009 3:44 p.m.
To: TAXACOM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

Some museums will loan types, but only if they are hand delivered.

The most serious problem of type access that the writer should look at
is where type access is prevented for researchers who may have a
different perspective to those who found the type. This occurs in
hominid systematics as a particular example, and it is a gross abuse in
my opinion, although I acknowledge that researchers in general do not
appear to be at all concerned and major funders continue to fund the
research of those who engage in this practice.

The writer should also point out that unimpeded access to types is
essential for systematics and taxonomy to retain their status as
science.

John Grehan

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Pyle
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 12:25 PM
To: 'TAXACOM'
Subject: [Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

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

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