{"id":13,"date":"2016-05-24T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T17:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/conner-museum\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:21:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T23:21:55","slug":"research-collections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sbs.wsu.edu\/conner-museum\/research-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n\t\tResearch Collection\t<\/h1>\r\n\t\t<\/header>\r\n\n\n
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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.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>\n\n

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What is a Research Collection?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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. \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shelves
Research specimen stored in ethanol.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Label on a Columbian Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus<\/em>) specimen. This squirrel was collected in Oregon on 19-June-1979 by R. E. Johnson and prepared as a study skin by G. R. Godsey.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For mammal specimens, a skull is usually saved with the skin because many mammals can only be positively identified with a skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spotted
A spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis) skin and skull.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Study skins are more efficient to store than traditional taxidermy because they can fit neatly into drawers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drawer
Drawer of Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For most species, we have at least one complete skeleton. \u00a0 For a research collection, the bones of a skeleton are not \u201carticulated\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The skeleton of a Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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What is a research collection used for?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n