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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Dr. Jason Massey, Monash University
I use 3D scans of primate skeletal materials to study the interaction between evolution and growth and development. By studying all aspects of an organism’s biology, we can draw stronger conclusions about how life, and in particular humans, evolved on this planet. My colleagues and I incorporate behavioral data from living primates, ecological data from where these primates live, and skeletal data from natural history collections to understand and reconstruct complex patterns of evolutionary change. This research thus cannot be undertaken without the preservation and curation of skeletal material in collections, including records of where the specimens originated.
Several of these scientists spoke at the University of Michigan's virtual Early Career Scientists Symposium of 2021, Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation.
