![]() ![]() Today, museums try to minimize impacting populations, species, and overall, biodiversity. Many natural history collections contain large donations from private collectors. As you can imagine, removing large numbers of a species from a given ecosystem can have significant negative impacts on local populations and potentially, the conservation status of a species. Traditionally, collections were developed by taking voucher specimens from nature. Natural history collections preserve a physical record of the history of life on Earth. Right: Glaucidium gnoma – Northern Pygmy Owl, Draper Natural History Museum, Buffalo Bill Center of the West How do museums acquire specimens? Left: Penstemon absarokensis – Absaroka Range beardtongue type specimen, Evert Herbarium Collection These data help provide context to researchers studying specific species or systems. Most specimens in the Draper Natural History Museum (Draper) have metadata associated with the object including information regarding the origin, species/type, collection date, collector, and sometimes measurements. Specimens can include skeletons, skins, flowers, minerals, etc and can be whole or incomplete. The term ‘specimen’ refers to any object (animal, plant, or non-living) that is preserved for scientific use. Note: Some of the photos included in this post show specimen preparation and might be graphic to some readers.
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