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. Claire Kirchhoff, Marquette University
I study dental diseases in primates, many of which are endangered, and the effects of these pathologies on cranial form, tooth wear, and feeding adaptations. Collections allow me and my collaborators to collect data and make inferences about primate behavior to better understand primate adaptation and evolution as well as human oral diseases. Such diseases often have serious racial, socioeconomic, and gender health disparities. We can acknowledge the harmful colonial history that spurred the creation of many natural history collections while leveraging their current existence to examine systems of injustice (such as health disparities, habitat destruction, and climate change) to improve the world and ourselves.
Several of these scientists spoke at the University of Michigan's virtual Early Career Scientists Symposium of 2021, Natural History Collections: Drivers of Innovation.
