23 messages in edu.ku.nhm.mailman.taxacomRe: [Taxacom] Accessing type specimens| From | Sent On | Attachments |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Pyle | Nov 26, 2009 9:24 am | |
| John Grehan | Nov 26, 2009 6:43 pm | |
| Stephen Thorpe | Nov 26, 2009 7:01 pm | |
| John Grehan | Nov 26, 2009 8:16 pm | |
| Fabian Haas | Nov 26, 2009 11:26 pm | |
| John Grehan | Nov 27, 2009 7:54 am | |
| Tony Irwin | Nov 28, 2009 2:22 pm | |
| miv...@montana.edu | Nov 28, 2009 2:53 pm | |
| Jody Haynes | Nov 28, 2009 3:48 pm | |
| Fabian Haas | Nov 29, 2009 9:39 pm | |
| Peter B. Phillipson | Nov 29, 2009 9:51 pm | |
| Fabian Haas | Nov 29, 2009 11:55 pm | |
| Moretzsohn, Fabio | Nov 30, 2009 9:00 am | |
| Moretzsohn, Fabio | Nov 30, 2009 9:10 am | |
| George Beccaloni | Nov 30, 2009 9:27 am | |
| Ian Stocks | Nov 30, 2009 9:52 am | |
| John Grehan | Nov 30, 2009 9:57 am | |
| Frederick W. Schueler | Nov 30, 2009 10:08 am | |
| Robin Leech | Nov 30, 2009 10:14 am | |
| Doug Yanega | Nov 30, 2009 10:59 am | |
| Robin Leech | Nov 30, 2009 11:24 am | |
| Curtis Clark | Dec 3, 2009 7:16 am | |
| Richard Pyle | Dec 3, 2009 11:05 am |
| Subject: | Re: [Taxacom] Accessing type specimens | |
|---|---|---|
| From: | John Grehan (jgre...@sciencebuff.org) | |
| Date: | Nov 26, 2009 8:16:29 pm | |
| List: | edu.ku.nhm.mailman.taxacom | |
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.th...@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: taxa...@mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxa...@mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of John Grehan [jgre...@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: taxa...@mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxa...@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: deep...@bishopmuseum.org http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html
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The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
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Or (2) a Google search specified as: site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom
your search terms here