Research Collection
The majority of the museum’s specimens (over 65,000 cataloged items) are intended for research and are not on display. These items are available for professional scientists and other qualified individuals.
What is a Research Collection?
The specimens in a research collection are like books in a library. Each specimen is a physical record for that species at a particular place and time. The specimens in a research collection provide documentation of a species range at the time it was collected. A physical specimen, unlike a photo or video, also stores information about itself, including its genetics, diet, and environmental pollutants, in its preserved body parts.
Most of the birds and mammals in a research collection are prepared as “study skins.” A study skin is the skin of the animal filled with cotton. Information about the specimen is attached to the prepared skin.
For mammal specimens, a skull is usually saved with the skin because many mammals can only be positively identified with a skull.
Study skins are more efficient to store than traditional taxidermy because they can fit neatly into drawers.
For most species, we have at least one complete skeleton. For a research collection, the bones of a skeleton are not “articulated”, i.e., they are not wired together to look like they are arranged in the living animal. Each specimen is kept as a disarticulated box of bones. Disarticulated skeletons are more easily stored than articulated skeletons and generally more useful to researchers who often want to examine individual bones.
What is a research collection used for?
Researchers use the collection for a wide variety of problems in systematics, ecology, conservation, and physical anthropology. Examples of the topics that can be studied using museum specimen include…
- Differences in plumage (feathers) and pelage (fur) between sexes, at different ages, at different seasons, and across the species’ range.
- Genetics: DNA can be extracted from skin and bones of old specimens. Since 2004, the museum has saved frozen tissue samples from incoming specimens. Frozen tissue has higher quality (less degraded) DNA than old skin and bone.
- Stable isotopes: The nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, and other elements that make up a living organism have different forms, called isotopes, that occur because some atoms have an extra neutron in their nucleus. The atoms with an extra neutron weigh a tiny bit more than the atoms without an extra neutron. In the fur, feather, bone, and other parts of an animal, the proportion of isotopes with and without an extra neutron will depend on the animal’s diet and the climate, location, and time in which it lived. Stable isotope samples of museum specimens collected at different times and locations can sometimes show dietary changes or changes in the animal’s environment over time.
- Bone identification: Along with skins, the museum has skeletons of most species of birds and mammals in the northwest. Pieces of bones from archaeological digs are identified by comparing the bone fragments against the “known” bones.
The research collection has also been used for scientific illustrations, morphological studies, studies of molt patterns, and supplementing the teaching collections for classes.
The collection is available to professional scientists and qualified university students. It is not open for public display. For inquiry on use or loans please contact our curator, Jessica Tir, by e-mail at connermuseum@wsu.edu.