Explore the vast range of titles available.

Museum specimens serve as the bedrock of systematic and taxonomic research and provide the basis for repeatability or reinterpretation of preserved aspects of phenotypes. Specimens are also fundamental to fields such as ecology, behavior, and development. Each specimen is a record of biodiversity and documents a particular species present at a particular place at a particular time. As such, specimens can provide key evidence for biodiversity and conservation initiatives. Four aspects of natural history collections and their use are discussed here: 1) collection, curation, and use of specimens, particularly non-traditional specimens; 2) the use of specimens and technological advances in morphology, ontogeny, systematics, and taxonomy; 3) specimen use in other fields of biology and ecology; and 4) specimen use in education and outreach. Collections, and their vitality, depend on both their continued roles in traditionally supported fields (e.g., taxonomy) as well as emerging arenas (e.g., epidemiology). Just as a library that ceases buying books becomes obsolete, or at least has diminished relevance, a natural history collection that does not continue to grow by adding new specimens ultimately will limit its utility. We discuss these roles of specimens and speak directly to the need to increase the visibility of the inherent value of natural history collections and the care of the specimens they protect for future generations.

Museums provide a wealth of scientific information via preserved natural history specimens, including but not limited to dietary, morphological, and geographic distributions of organisms. In the modern molecular age, however, fluid-preserved museum collections have not always been at the frontline for generating useable data, despite the fact that for some species, only museum specimens are known, with no fresh genetic materials available. We are now at a major shift in our ability to use museum specimens for molecular phylogenetics, where modern subgenomic sequencing techniques better allow for successfully sequencing hundreds to thousands of phylogenetically informative loci for historical specimens, including formalin- and fluid-preserved amphibians and reptiles. Here, I review the current state of the field, with respect to studies which have successfully generated high-throughput molecular datasets using fluid-preserved specimens for herpetofauna, particularly for systematic studies. Although only six publications fitting the search criteria were found, these studies provide a wealth of knowledge on the uses of museum herpetological specimens for modern work and illustrate just how important historical specimens are for enhancing our current understanding of species genetic structure, phylogenetic placements, and for disentangling taxonomic conundrums. In an age where both museums and general collecting come under critique from the general public, this review emphasizes the continued importance of museum specimens across all subfields in the study of amphibians and reptiles.

The University of Washington Fish Collection is a state-funded collection shared between the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture dating back to 1919. Early collecting followed the interests of curators and university class field trips, with a slow and steady growth rate up until the late 1970s. At that time, recognizing that state and federal agencies routinely collect specimens as part of their fishery and resource management efforts, we sought out partnerships with several local agencies, most notably the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Department, to provide collections support for the natural history specimens collected through their survey work. The millions of specimens collected through these efforts, including adults, juveniles, eggs, larvae, skeletal materials, otoliths, and tissue samples, along with detailed locality data, are now freely available to researchers around the world. Vouchering specimens adds value to agency research by allowing for verification of results of work critical to the management of our resources, including supporting forensic vouchering for law enforcement. Our collection benefits not only from the huge number and diversity of specimens we can make available to researchers, but also through training opportunities for our students who help to curate the collections and often participate in survey fieldwork along with agency scientists. I outline these partnerships and the benefits to both parties as we curate these vast specialized collections.

For generations, organismal biologists have learned their craft in hands-on laboratories that teach anatomy, evolution, natural history, systematics, and functional morphology through specimen collection, observation, comparison, and manipulation. Though these activities teach the comparative method that lies at the heart of our discipline, students without access to specimen collections have been excluded from this foundational experience. To fill that gap, we developed a virtual collection of photographs and 3D specimen models and designed entirely online versions of courses in ichthyology and systematics of fishes. The virtualization allows students to illustrate and compare specimens in online labs, identify species from different habitats using dichotomous keys, contextualize the relationships of species, recognize synapomorphies using a phylogeny, take online specimen-based practical exams, and help each other recognize adaptations and diagnostic features on threaded discussion boards. The classes built around the collection educate and provide university credit to students lacking access to similar courses, and their infrastructure allowed face-to-face instruction to shift online rapidly after 2020's novel coronavirus shut down our brick-and-mortar campus. While we may never be able to replicate the aroma of oil-laden alcohol online, specimen virtualization opens access to experiential learning to an underserved and widespread audience; allows new generations of students to develop crucial skills in observation, comparison, and inference; and affords substantial instructional resiliency when unexpected challenges arise.