Museum Specimens

Museum specimens document the occurrence of species in space and time and are used by ecologists, morphologists, and conservation biologists among others.

Additionally, study skins and osteological specimens are important for universities and other institutions as teaching aids for learning species identification or morphological structures. Museum collections are analogous to libraries, deriving their value from housing a variety of taxa along with both older specimens and newer acquisitions. However, despite the use of museum specimens in ecological and evolutionary studies, considerably less attention and resources have been devoted to the preparation of voucher specimens. Furthermore, fewer students are trained in the preparation or appreciation of voucher specimens, jeopardizing the future of museums. To this end, I have made it a point to prepare voucher specimens from my own research and train future researchers in the vouchering process.

I have demonstrated the process of museum preparation of birds and mammals to hundreds of students and have trained dozens in the art of mammal specimen preparation at both the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and the University of New Hampshire. I have also done seminars to train students and staff at the University of Wisconsin Parkside and Yale University (where I am a Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Curatorial Affiliate). Since 2006 I have deposited over 6,000 mammal specimens and hundreds of truffle specimens in museum collections across the United States. I have also arranged exchanges for museum specimens with no data to build teaching collections at UWSP and UNH. Below is a list of museums that I have deposited specimens in. I have also arranged exchanges for museum specimens with no data to build teaching collections at UWSP and UNH. Below is a list of museums that I have deposited specimens in.

MAMMAL SPECIMENS

  • Museum of Southwestern Biology, Albuquerque, NM
  • University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point Museum of Natural History, Stevens Point, WI
  • National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
  • Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, New Haven, CT
  • Natural History Museum of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
  • Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, Provo, UT
  • Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, MA 
  • University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, AK
  • Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA

TRUFFLE SPECIMENS

  • Oregon State University Mycological Collection, Corvallis, OR
  • University of Florida Herbarium, Gainesville, FL
  • National Fungal Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.