Worldwide natural history collections contain more than three billion specimens assembled over hundreds of years, an irreplaceable physical record of life. Though there is bias inherent in their composition — from a disproportionate number of roadside plants to the dismissal of traditional ecological knowledge that could have expanded our understanding far sooner — we rely on them to gather data on the past, decipher the present, and forecast the future of the changing Earth. With modern technology, they can answer questions that their original collectors never dreamed of. Who knows what further mysteries they hold? Below, scientists explain their efforts to unravel some of those mysteries.
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Prof. Siobhán Cooke, Johns Hopkins University
My research focuses on understanding how mammals are adapted to their unique ecological niches. Over the years, I have used fifteen different natural history collections in six countries. My most recent project uses the Caribbean collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History. My colleagues at Penn State, University of Cincinnati, and UF-Gainesville received NSF funding to explore the evolution, diversification, and extinction of the Caribbean rodents. These organisms serve as an excellent model for understanding evolution on islands. We would not be able to acquire the necessary samples for our ancient DNA, isotopic, and morphological analyses without these invaluable collections.
Several of these scientists spoke at the University of Michigan's virtual Early Career Scientists Symposium of 2021, Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation.
