Tag: natural history collections

Imperial Woodpecker returns to life as a detailed digital specimen

An open-access 3D model of the world’s largest woodpecker brings an extinct Mexican bird into the public eye.

Researchers have created a detailed, animated 3D model of the Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), a spectacular bird that has not been confirmed in the wild since 1956. The model, built from a museum specimen and the only known film footage of the living bird, is freely available to scientists, educators and the public.

The study, led by Joshua Medina at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is published in the open-access journal Natural History Collections and Museomics (NHCM). The research team also includes colleagues from the Moore Laboratory of Zoology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and Oregon State University.

3D model of an Imperial Woodpecker mid-flight with wings extended. The left wing (A) has been labelled and colour-coded according to feather type present in the model. The right wing (B) exposes the underlying 3D armature that drives the motion and articulation of the wing. Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.

The Imperial Woodpecker was the largest woodpecker on record, reaching more than 60 centimetres in length. It lived in the old-growth pine forests of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental and is presumed extinct following widespread logging of its habitat. Around 100 preserved specimens exist in museums worldwide, and the only moving images of the species are a few seconds of grainy film shot in 1956.

“The Imperial Woodpecker hasn’t been seen in the wild for nearly 70 years. Creating a digital specimen let us re-capture a glimpse of the bird’s real likeness and behaviour in a way that’s easy to access and share.”

The Research Team

From museum skin to moving bird

The reconstruction began with a female specimen held at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology, which houses the world’s largest collection of Mexican birds. The team photographed the specimen 288 times from every angle and used photogrammetry, a technique that turns overlapping photographs into a 3D surface, to capture its shape with sub-millimetre accuracy. Measurements of the head, bill, body, wings and tail were taken throughout to keep the digital bird true to the original.

3D model of an Imperial Woodpecker ascending a tree. The model is shown fully rendered with colour derived from 3D specimen scans and photographs (A), with the underlying mesh exposed in the image to the right (B). Below, still frames of a live female Imperial Woodpecker in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico show the bird climbing (C) and mid-flight (D). Video frames reproduced from Lammertink et al. (2011, fig. 1). Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.

Feathers proved the greatest challenge. Because it is difficult to see individual feathers on a specimen, the team modelled individual feather shapes on those of the Pileated Woodpecker, the largest living woodpecker in North America, then resized and adjusted them to match the known proportions of the Imperial Woodpecker. Wing patterning was drawn from scientific illustrations and checked against the available visual record.

Wing-tip displacement over the course of the animation sequence, tracked from the tip of the terminal phalanx. Graphs show displacement in the mediolateral (x) axis, the dorsoventral (y) axis and the anteroposterior (z) axis, each measured in metres, plotted against animation frame number. Peaks and troughs in each axis correspond to discrete wingbeat cycles, with intervening plateaus reflecting periods of soaring where wing-tip movement is minimal. Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.

Using the open-source software Blender, the researchers then built a digital skeleton to drive the model’s movement. Ten primary, ten secondary and twelve tail feathers were each individually modelled and rigged, so that they can spread, bend and fold independently. To the team’s knowledge, this makes the model one of the first open, specimen-based bird reconstructions to combine a photogrammetric body with individually animated feathers.

Two animations bring the model to life: a looping flight sequence and a short clip of the bird climbing a tree trunk and drumming against the bark. Both are grounded in the 1956 film footage, supplemented by behavioural video of the Pileated Woodpecker and published data on woodpecker wingbeat timing.

Four phases of the wingbeat cycle of C. imperialis, shown in dorsal view (A) and lateral view (B). Beginning with the wings fully extended at the top of the upstroke (1), the wingtips sweep downward through the downstroke to their lowermost point (2), before the wings fold and draw back towards the body (3) and finally extend again as they rise to complete the upstroke (4). Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.

A tool for science and for public awareness

Beyond its visual appeal, the model is designed as a reproducible scientific resource. Researchers can use it to estimate body volume and surface area, compare shape with living relatives, or run simulations of flight and feather movement. The authors note it could also inform the design of bird-inspired flying robots.

The team hopes the work will also reach audiences far beyond the laboratory:

“The Imperial Woodpecker might be the last bird species to have gone extinct in continental North America, but arguably 99.9% of people have never heard of it.

If a digital specimen can increase public awareness of extinct species by even a fraction of a percent, that’s millions of people who have an idea for what extinction can erase from the planet.”

Russell Campbell measuring the Imperial Woodpecker specimen. Image credit: Joshua Medina.

The study also highlights the cultural dimension of the species. The Imperial Woodpecker features in the traditions of Indigenous communities of the Sierra Madre Occidental, yet few, if any, museum specimens are held in Mexico. The authors suggest that freely shared digital models may help to offset these geographic and institutional barriers, while acknowledging that whether such work can contribute to the repatriation of biological and cultural heritage remains an open question.

Imperial Woodpecker 3D Model.

The researchers are candid about the model’s limits. It is based on a single female specimen, and aspects such as soft tissue and flight kinematics rely on informed estimation from living relatives. They hope future work will digitise further specimens to capture variation between sexes and individuals.

“The fact that this was created by such a small team will hopefully be a proof of concept that results in more museum specimens being brought to life and shared with the larger scientific community.”

The model, skeleton and animations are available to view and download through Sketchfab.

Original source

Medina J, Campbell R, Martin J, McCormack JE, Irschick DJ (2026) A digital specimen of the extinct Imperial Woodpecker: integrating museum scans, historical film and animated feather articulation. Natural History Collections and Museomics 3: e204314. https://doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.3.204314

Natural History Collections and Museomics: Facebook and Bluesky

Pensoft at TDWG2026: Pushing the boundaries of innovation in biodiversity data management forward

Last week marked another annual meeting of the Biodiversity Information Standards network, otherwise known as TDWG, with the Norwegian capital Oslo hosting the event between 20 and 25 September.

Last week marked another annual meeting of the Biodiversity Information Standards network, otherwise known as TDWG, with the Norwegian capital Oslo hosting the event between 21 and 25 September.

TDWG is the international, non-profit organisation formerly known as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group, which develops and maintains the standards, such as Darwin Core, that allow biodiversity data to be shared, integrated and understood across institutions worldwide.

The six-day programme was a meeting point for over 300 stakeholders from research, practitioner and corporate circles, with proceedings centred around one central topic – “Research and Robot-Ready Biodiversity Data Standards”. In that sense, the themes of accessibility, responsibility, innovation and collaboration were foremost on the minds of participants as they contemplated how information on the biosphere should be extracted, consolidated and shared in the years to come.

As a long-standing partner of TDWG, Pensoft Publishers served as both a sponsor and an exhibitor for the event. In the latter capacity, the company contributed with a joint booth for three of the EU-funded projects it is leading the outreach efforts for:

  • BMD – an initiative working towards a Biodiversity Explorer for high-throughput biodiversity monitoring tools, biodiversity data and biodiversity analyses for better conservation across Europe
  • TETTRIX – a new arrival building a next-generation taxonomic system connecting knowledge, expertise and innovation for all across the Old Continent
  • ANERIS – a pan-European effort to mobilise a network of operational marine biology via a new technological infrastructure
The Pensoft team at the joint booth of the BMD, TETTRIX and ANERIS projects.

A number of other projects from Pensoft’s communication portfolio also found a place in the display, including BEAGLE, OneSTOP, B-Cubed, MAMBO, OBSGESSION and BioAgora. Furthermore, 14 of the company’s journals were in the spotlight, including Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS), the official journal of the TDWG community (where all of the conference’s abstracts are set to be published).  

Crucially, the event also saw the official launch of ORPHO, Pensoft’s new collaborative workspace for scientific writing. Founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev and CTO Teodor Georgiev conducted live demos of the tool, showcasing how manuscripts crafted within it with full version control for authors become discoverable, interoperable and FAIR-compliant.

In the context of TDWG2026’s agenda, they also presented ORPHO’s integrated semantic annotation and communication instruments as part of the workshop “How Literature Services can Support & Benefit from Biodiversity Publication and Data Standards?” on 24 September. The workspace was received with anticipation and enthusiasm by attendees, with many expressing a desire to test it out for themselves.

They were also treated with a tease of Pensoft’s next large-scale endeavour, as Senior Communications Officer Peter Bozakov pulled the curtain behind the forthcoming communication platform for research projects Scientiana.

  • Pensoft’s CTO Teodor Georgiev introduces the collaborative scientific workspace ORPHO.

As for other notable contributions to the wider conference agenda by researchers affiliated with Pensoft’s publishing or project activities:

  • The session “Operationalising Biodiversity Digital Twins within Data Space Ecosystems”, which was co-led by BMD coordinator and long-time author and reviewer across several Pensoft journals, including Biodiversity Data Journal and Research Ideas and Outcomes, Niels Raes, and showcased a number of innovative outputs from the project. As such, it was an important occasion to assess the initiative’s progress towards unifying Europe’s Data Space within a single Biodiversity Explorer.
Niels Raes presenting “Mainstreaming high-throughput biodiversity monitoring using AI” at TDWG 2026.
  • The symposium “Publishing and Communications Promoting Biodiversity, Natural History Collections, People, Data and Data Standards”, for which Deborah Paul (co-Editor-in-Chief of the Natural History Collections and Museomics (NHCM) journal) had the role of co-organiser. Within it, the TETTRIX project’s vision for the automated tracking of taxonomic research activities was laid out by consortium member David Fichtmüller. Moreover, Shelley James (co-Editor-in-Chief for NHCM) delivered an insightful talk on the creative promotion of biodiversity data and standards for success and recognition.
Co-Editors-in-Chief of NHCM, Shelley James and Deborah Paul, presenting “Hit or miss? Creative promotion of biodiversity data and standards for success and recognition” at TDWG 2026.

Notably, the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) journal is the home for TDWG conference abstracts. TDWG 2026 presenters can currently submit their abstracts there and publish them in an extended abstract or mini-paper format completely free of charge. The journal also hosts abstracts from conferences held over the past decade. You can browse the TDWG 2026 collection here.

Last but not least, the company’s sponsorship supported two awards at TDWG2026 (with a free publication in a Pensoft journal as an accompanying prize):

  • Best Student Oral Presentation – awarded to Yeshan Qui for “Reporting structure and sampling-bias correction in citizen-science bird data across Asian cities”
  • Best Student Poster – awarded to Claudia Campanini for “Improving marine fieldwork documentation and metadata with Adaptable Standardised Methods Reporting (ASMR)”
Claudia Campanini receiving the Pensoft Best Student Poster Award at TDWG 2026.

Overall, TDWG2026 proved itself a crucial forum for mapping out the future of biodiversity monitoring and the management of the myriad data streams that emerge from it. Pensoft is proud to be an important actor in this process, contributing with innovative tools and solutions at the heart of the interface between research and practice. As summarised by Prof. Penev:

“Given its status as a large-scale conference centred around the future of biodiversity sciences in the age of AI, TDWG2026 was a crucial venue for unveiling Pensoft’s forward-looking vision for academic publishing and science communication. The “pearl” of these pursuits is undoubtedly the ORPHO workspace, a tool that is well-placed to introduce a new standard when it comes to collaborative AI-FAIR research in Europe and beyond.”

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A mystery kept in London led to the discovery of a new Ecuadorian frog

Pristimantis milpe is an abundant and widely distributed species that had been confused with another species for over a century.

Scientists from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador officially described Pristimantis milpe, an abundant and widely distributed species that had been confused with another species for over a century. To solve the mystery, researchers reviewed specimens collected in Ecuador during the 19th century and preserved at the Natural History Museum in London.

Reproductive pair (amplexus) of the Milpe Robber Frog photographed at night on a leaf in the tropical forest of the Ecuadorian Chocó. Photo: Santiago R. Ron.

The finding is exceptional because, unlike many recently described species – which are usually rare or restricted to small geographic areas – Pristimantis milpe is a common frog, widely distributed, and easy to detect by its nocturnal call. The species inhabits the Chocó forests of western Ecuador and southern Colombia, in a range that exceeds 67,000 square kilometers, from sea level up to 1,200 meters in altitude.

Amphibiologist Santiago Ron. The leading author of the study.

The scientific description was published in the international journal ZooKeys, which specialises in research on biodiversity and taxonomy. The identification of Pristimantis milpe was made possible thanks to a review of the historical amphibian collections preserved at the Natural History Museum in London (NHM).

Facade of the Natural History Museum in London, where the key specimens that clarified the taxonomic mess are kept. Photo: Santiago R. Ron.

To resolve a taxonomic confusion that lasted for more than a century, Santiago Ron, a researcher at PUCE and lead author of the study, travelled to England to examine the original specimens – known as “types” – that were collected in Ecuador during the 19th century and preserved ever since.

Santiago Ron reviewing jars with historical specimens preserved in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London. Specimens were collected in the 19th century in Ecuador and preserved in London.

The analysis allowed these historical specimens to be compared with current populations of frogs from the Ecuadorian Chocó. The researchers determined that the specimens had been erroneously associated with another species. This confusion caused a species that had been present and observed for decades to remain without a scientific name of its own.

“That such a common species has gone unnoticed under the wrong name for decades highlights the importance of correctly connecting scientific names with living populations in nature.”

Jhael Ortega, a PhD student at Virginia Tech and one of the study authors

The Milpe Robber Frog (Cutín de Milpe) is a species with nocturnal habits. Males usually call from the leaves of shrubs and bromeliads located several meters high within the forest. Their vocalisation is characterised by a loud and distinct sound, similar to a “click.”

  • The Milpe Robber Frog lives in a wide variety of habitats, from parks in urban areas to primary forests. The individual in the photo comes from the Río Ayampe Reserve in the Manabí province. Photo: Diego Paucar.

One of its most striking features is the dimorphism between females and males. Females present a distinctive color pattern on the groin and thighs, with orange or light blue tones accompanied by black spots. Males, on the other hand, have more uniform shades.

The species is found in the forests of the Ecuadorian Chocó and southern Colombia, one of the most important regions for biodiversity conservation.

The Ecuadorian Chocó forest is home to more than 250 species of amphibians, including the Milpe Robber Frog, Pristimantis milpe. Photo: Santiago R. Ron.

The study demonstrates the scientific value of natural history collections. Specimens preserved for centuries allow current researchers to review classifications, compare characteristics, and answer questions that remained open for generations.

In this case, the analysis of specimens collected in the 19th century, combined with the study of current populations, allowed Pristimantis milpe to be formally recognised as a distinct species.

The work also shows that biodiversity still holds surprises even in abundant and well-known species, and that scientific research requires connecting historical knowledge with the tools and observations available today.

Original source

Ron SR, Paredes-Aguirre P, Paucar DA, López Y, Apunte K, Ortega JA (2026) Long overdue: a new, widespread, species of Pristimantis (Anura, Strabomantidae) from the Chocó region and the synonymy of Pristimantis subsigillatus. ZooKeys 1286: 121-152. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1286.194383

For more articles on zoology, visit the ZooKeys website and follow the journal on BlueSky and Facebook.

Pensoft Joins the Global Lichenology Community at IAL10 in Trieste

The 10th Symposium of the International Association for Lichenology took place in Trieste, where Pensoft showcased its plant science and mycology journal portfolio.

Last week, the 10th Symposium of the International Association for Lichenology (IAL10) took place in Trieste, Italy, from 26 to 31 July 2026, organised by the International Association for Lichenology, the University of Trieste’s Department of Life Sciences and the Italian Lichenological Society.

Held once every four years, the symposium is an important event for the global lichenology community, and this edition proved more popular than ever, drawing over 350 participants from around the world – more than double the number originally expected.

Lichenology is a wonderfully niche field, but IAL10 showed just how far-reaching and collaborative the community is. Delegates travelled from every corner of the globe to discuss taxonomy, lichen-associated microorganisms, biodiversity and conservation, ecophysiology, environmental biomonitoring, and cultural heritage preservation. 

Pensoft’s stand at IAL10

  • Maria Kolesnikova, our Head of Marketing, Sales and Events, at the Pensoft stand at IAL10.

We were pleased to have our own stand at the symposium, where we showcased our journals in plant science and mycology, including:

  • MycoKeys: publishes papers on the monophyletic kingdom Fungi containing taxonomic or ecological data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world with no limit to manuscript size;
  • IMA Fungus: considers contributions from all areas of mycology expected to be of interest to the wider mycological community, from basic research to applications
  • PhytoKeys: publishes papers in systematic Botany containing taxonomic/floristic data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world 
  • Italian Botanist: publishes original research covering all fields of Botany in its wider sense, including Mycology, ranging from molecular to ecosystem studies
  • Biodiversity Data Journal: publishes papers in biodiversity science containing taxonomic, floristic/faunistic, morphological, genomic, phylogenetic, ecological or environmental data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world 
  • Vegetation Classification and Survey: publishes original papers that develop new vegetation typologies as well as applied studies that use such typologies, for example, in vegetation mapping, ecosystem modelling, nature conservation, land use management or monitoring 
  • Pensoft’s journals in plant science and mycology.

It was a great opportunity to speak directly with researchers and students about publishing their work, and to reconnect with authors and editors already part of our community.

  • Garima Singh – Subject Editor and Author in MycoKeys.
  • Muhammad Usman, Author in MycoKeys.
  • Edyta Mazur – Author in Mycokeys.
  • Pier Luigi Nimis – Subject Editor and Reviewer in MycoKeys.

Talks that caught our attention

Among the many excellent presentations at IAL10, two in particular stood out to us:

  • Juri Nascimbene presenting his talk at IAL10 – Historical lichen collections as a time capsule.
  • Juri Nascimbene at Pensoft’s stand.

Juri Nascimbene, a subject editor and author at MycoKeys and an author for Italian Botanist, Vegetation Classification and Survey, and Biodiversity Data Journal, presented on the historical lichen collections held at the University of Bologna’s herbarium (BOLO). His talk explored how these collections, some dating back to the work of Ulisse Aldrovandi in the sixteenth century, allow researchers to track species distributions across centuries. 

Using material such as Antonio Bertoloni’s Hortus Siccus Florae Italicae, which contains 850 georeferenced lichen specimens, Nascimbene’s team has been able to trace the long-term presence of species such as Lobaria pulmonaria in the chestnut groves of the Northern Apennines, and the disappearance of cold-adapted species such as Alectoria ochroleuca from high-altitude sites.

It was a fascinating look at how historical herbaria can inform our understanding of global change today!

  • Martin Grube presenting his talk at IAL10 – Lichens in motion.

We also attended a talk by Martin Grube, a reviewer and author at MycoKeys, who challenged the common perception of lichens as slow-growing organisms. His presentation examined the hygroscopic movements lichens undergo as they take up and lose water, and the mechanical stresses this creates within their thalli.

Grube introduced tools for measuring these mechanical properties and discussed what they might reveal about the evolution and function of lichen structures, thus offering a compelling primer on comparative thallus mechanics.

A new special issue in MycoKeys

While at IAL10, we were pleased to announce a new special issue in MycoKeys: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the International Association for Lichenology (IAL10), edited by Mauro Tretiach, Fabio Candotto Carniel, and Lucia Muggia. The special issue will bring together original research articles and short communications covering the full breadth of lichen symbiosis research. We look forward to seeing the community’s latest work published there.

  • Announcement of a special issue in MycoKeys at IAL10.

Celebrating the award winners

Congratulations to all of this year’s IAL10 award winners:

Group photograph of the award winners at IAL10.

Best Posters

  • Honorata Wacławek, “Phylogenetic insights into freshwater Gyalidea (Gomphillaceae, Graphidales) from the high Andes of Bolivia”
  • Ariel Sebastián Udaeta Sanchez, “First axenic cultures of saxicolous lichens from Tucumán (NW Argentina): growth timelines and representation of under-studied neotropical lineages”

Best Flash Talks

  • Ciaran Kelly, “Comparative genomic analyses of antimicrobial proteins encoded by lichen-forming fungi”
  • Anna Pasinato, “The metabolic divide: fungal genomes reveal an unequal distribution of biosynthetic gene clusters”

Best Oral Presentations

  • Victoria K., “Hidden cohabitants: metagenomic insights into global occurrence patterns of black fungi associated with lichens”
  • Diego Garfias Gallegos, “Central metabolism and development are rewired in lichenized cyanobacteria”

Until next time

IAL10 was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the lichenology community, and we were delighted to meet so many authors from our journals in person. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand, attended a talk with us, or simply shared a conversation about lichens.

We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Italian Lichenological Society and seeing you all again at the next symposium. 

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Bugs in drawers: entomological outreach collections and their role in community engagement

Pensoft’s new Diamond Open Access journal Natural History Collections and Museomics (NHCM) has just concluded its first topical collection, “Entomological Outreach Collections and Community Engagement.”

The collection brings together contributions from faculty, curators, collection managers, and students from around the world, having sprung from the November 2024 “Collections Reaching Out” symposium at the Entomological Collections Network annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The symposium focused on the conception, preparation, management, and educational use of outreach drawers: special collections of insect specimens curated for public learning and awareness.

A tray of insect specimens surrounded by children drawing them.
A high school outreach class using display drawers. Credit: Abby Weber.

Despite their crucial role in science education and public engagement, outreach drawers have remained understudied. The papers in this new collection aim to fill that gap, examining their purpose, design, usage, and how to assess their impact. The editors, Victor Gonzalez and Jennifer C. Girón Duque, brought together international perspectives to identify best practices and strategies that maximise outreach effectiveness.

Featured in the collection

Two children and a teacher looking at a tray of insect specimens.

Children observing insects during National Science Week 2024. Image credit: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania.
Bugging Science Olympiad in 2024 and 2025 with Real Insect Specimens in Georgia, USA
Various trays of insect specimens.

Educational collection of the Invertebrate Division at the LOUNAZ Museum. a Young visitors at an insect educational session; b insect cabinets and display boxes showcasing curated specimens. Credit: Paucar-Cabrera et al.
Painted models of insects, with people painting them.
 Painted 3D models along with the acrylic paints used during the European Researchers’ Night workshop. Credit: Albert et al.
A tray of insect specimens.
A Museums in Miniature drawer ready for deployment. Credit: Wooden et al.
A tray of bee specimens.
A display drawer of British bees, utilising unit trays system. Credit: Ashleigh L. Whiffin.
Close up of a green bee.
Augochlora pura (female). Credit: Anthony Abbate.

By exploring topics from innovative educational programs and accessible specimen displays, to community science initiatives and frameworks for assessment, the collection demonstrates how outreach collections can turn “bugs in drawers” into powerful vehicles for learning and community engagement.

NHCM’s Diamond Open Access model ensures that these resources are free and available to all, reaffirming the journal’s commitment to inclusivity and expanding the societal impact of natural history collections.

You can read the topical collection here.

After 150 years, butterfly collected by Alfred Russel Wallace finds its name

A monograph by a team of international researchers revised the diverse Neotropical butterfly genus Euptychia.

Guest blog post by Shinichi Nakahara

A new Amazonian butterfly

In a drawer of the butterfly collection at the Natural History Museum in London (NHMUK) sit a handful of rather unassuming butterfly specimens from Amazonia. Marked only with a couple of bands and eyespots on the underside of their wings, these specimens were thought to be pitch-brown black-eyed satyrs (Euptychia picea) for over 150 years. Labels attached to some of them suggest that they were collected by 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace during his expedition to the Amazon rainforest along with his good friend, Henry Walter Bates. A recent 300-page monographic study of this group of butterflies has recognised these specimens as a species new to science: Euptychia andrewberryi, or Berry’s black-eyed satyr.

A mounted butterfly with brown and cream patterns, featuring prominent eye spots, displayed alongside various small labels.
Euptychia andrewberryi. Photo credit: © Trustees of NHMUK

A monograph by a team of international researchers revised the diverse Neotropical butterfly genus Euptychia. The study was led by Shinichi Nakahara, a Lepidoptera subject editor for ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, and Neotropical Biology and Conservation.

The story behind the eponym

In 1848, Wallace and Bates set sail on an epic voyage for the Amazon to explore and research its neotropical biodiversity. Their trip was funded by Samuel Stevens, a natural history agent in London. In 1852, after four years of collecting, Wallace returned from Brazil with all his specimens loaded on a ship named the Helen. However, on his way back to London, the Helen caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and sank. In the blink of an eye, Wallace lost all of his material. This shipwreck is one of the most disastrous events in the history of science, yet fortunately some of Wallace’s Amazonian material escaped the tragedy and made its way to London.

A black-and-white photo of an old gentleman in formal attire, sitting in an ornate chair at a photo studio.
Alfred Russel Wallace.

Throughout the course of his travels in Amazonia, Wallace occasionally shipped back specimens to Stevens in London. In a letter to Stevens, dated 15 November 1849, Wallace wrote from Santarém (500 miles above Pará), “I spent about three weeks at Montealegre and have now been back here nearly a month, so before I leave for the Rio Negro, I send you a small lot of insects; they consist almost entirely of Lepidoptera…”

The registration records at the NHMUK suggest that the holotype of Euptychia andrewberryi entered the collection in 1850, supporting the notion that it was shipped to London while Wallace was still in Brazil.

A photo of a middle-aged man with short, light gray hair wearing black, seated in a vibrant café setting.
Andrew Berry. Photo by Shori Hijikata

Andrew J. Berry is a historian of science with a long-standing interest in Wallace. A lecturer in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, Andrew teaches evolutionary biology and related subjects. While working on the Euptychia monograph, Andrew’s dry sense of humor and undying zest were critical in the completion of a study of such great magnitude. 

Why monographs are important

Taxonomic monographs serve as a foundation for understanding species diversity and phylogenetic relationships within a given group of organisms. They enhance our understanding of the myriad species with which we share our planet. Undertaking work on a monograph typically requires travelling to many museums, incorporating morphological and molecular studies, and conducting field work, as well as reviewing literature to solve taxonomic or nomenclatural conundrums. Despite this tedious process, which requires a great deal of perseverance, monographs underscore the rather underappreciated nature of taxonomy, representing “a small gain for a huge effort.” Unfortunately, most diverse tropical groups of organisms have not yet received a comprehensive taxonomic treatment.　

Euptychia is the largest Neotropical satyrine genus ever to be revised. This monograph increased the known diversity of Euptychia to 50 species, significantly more than hitherto estimated. Although further testing is needed, it is worth emphasising that only 16 described species were recognised in the genus in 2004. It is remarkable to realise that such a profound discrepancy existed between perceived and actual species richness, especially within a well-studied group of invertebrates such as butterflies. This further underscores the importance of revisionary monographic works.

Bugging Science Olympiad in 2024 and 2025 with Real Insect Specimens in Georgia, USA

Guest blog post by Dr. Kelly Carruthers, lead author of the research paper, ‘Use of insect specimens for Science Olympiad entomology exam in Georgia, USA,’ published in the open-access journal Natural History Collections and Museomics.

Ask any person around you, “how do you feel about insects?” and you’re likely to get a range of answers, most not so great. As entomologists, we’re always looking for new ways to do outreach and engage with the public at large, mostly so we can move the “feelings about insects” needle toward a little bit less icky.

Outreach can range from standalone events that we’re invited to all the way to large insect festivals that attract considerable audiences… like moths to flames. Occasionally, we do get asked to do something new and intriguing to reach a broader audience, and this time it was the Georgia Science Olympiad.

A box of insect specimens.
Schmitt boxes prepared for students to observe and interact with during the Outreach Day. This box displays families within the orders Diptera, Trichoptera and Hymenoptera and were selected, based on their large size and charismatic features. Students were allowed to view and handle specimens carefully to observe features and characteristics of each family.

Science Olympiad is a non-profit organization founded in 1984 with the goal of increasing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) participation among students of primary and secondary grade levels in the United States. Science Olympiad boasts 23 different science-related events where groups of 2 -3 students participate and can earn awards by placing individually and/or as a team by combining scores.

Events range from testing to lab and build events, where students attempt to build the winning machine to the competition specifications. Additionally, Science Olympiad competitions rotate through a variety of field biology events, including Forestry, Herpetology, Ornithology, and Entomology …which is where I came in!

In 2024 and 2025, the Entomology rotation re-emerged, and the University of Georgia’s Department of Entomology was asked to participate in the organization and test writing for both high school and middle school divisions. Being ever excited to engage in new outreach opportunities, I jumped at the chance to participate.

Three small trays containing inspect specimens.
Sample specimens used for the Science Olympiad Entomology Exam. Unit trays include the specimen for the individual station and the station number pinned in the top right corner.

Yash Sajjan and Vaishnavi Balaji, both students at the University of Georgia who participated in Science Olympiad in middle school and then dedicated themselves to organizing the event as university students, reached out to me to explain what they needed. Typically, entomology exams in other US states use photographs and images, but we decided that using real insect specimens would be much more impactful. Yash also told me he could write the exam easily, and as a point of pride (as both an entomologist and former educator), I let my ego win and offered to write the exam myself instead.

The exam consisted of 15 stations, 14 of which were real insect specimens and 1 that used a model of a bee or diagram of a grasshopper for the high school and middle school exams, respectfully. Each station had 4 – 7 questions that ranged from classification names to pest status to interesting behavioral aspects of the insect specimen, and students were given 50 minutes to complete the exam. For each exam, 9 – 10 insect orders were represented of the 29 listed on the 2025 National Entomology List put out by the Science Olympiad.

Because the Entomology exam was so successful, I was asked to help participate in the inaugural outreach day for Science Olympiad in Georgia which aimed to increase participation in Science Olympiad by providing demonstrations, activities, and resources for underserved counties in neighboring counties to University of Georgia.

Students observing a box of insect specimens.

Students and a teacher observe a Schmitt box with a variety of specimens during the Outreach Day for the Science Olympiad. Descriptions and meanings of the orders of insects are projected on the screen.

For this event, I was able to curate 23 of 29 insect orders and 70 of 100 families listed on the 2025 National Entomology List from a surplus collection from entomology coursework at UGA to show students. I worked to find either a specimen that exemplified the family or one that was extravagant enough to excite or interest students.

Overall, teachers, students, and the State Director for Science Olympiad were supportive and interested in using real insect specimens for the exam and outreach day. It gave students a chance to see an insect in 3-D beyond what an image can show.

Science Olympiad has the power to show students a variety of STEM fields and shape their future major choices and college experiences. Knowing this, entomologists and other professionals in STEM have a chance to engage with a group of often enthusiastic and interested students, encouraging them to see a new aspect of STEM and open their eyes to new experiences. In addition, the outreach day gave me a chance to connect with teachers which may gain confidence in the material, which directly impacts how students engage with and explore various topics. If as entomologists we bug teachers and students into appreciating a few bugs a bit more, then we’ve done our best work for outreach!

Original source

Carruthers K, Sajjan Y, Balaji V (2025) Use of insect specimens for Science Olympiad entomology exam in Georgia, USA. Natural History Collections and Museomics 2: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.2.153727

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Everything (in museums) Everywhere, All at Once

Guest blog post by Julia Sigwart.

Imagine walking into a museum and realising that every specimen—a rare deep-sea snail, a giant fossil bone, a pressed plant, the DNA bank, endless drawers of perfectly pinned insects, even the notebooks and dusty photographs in the archive—is part of a vast, interconnected web of knowledge. Now, imagine if all of these specimens—across every museum in the world—were seamlessly linked, their data unified and accessible to scientists, historians, educators, and conservationists everywhere. This vision is at the heart of collectomics—a groundbreaking new term introduced in a recent paper published in Natural History Collections and Museomics.

Examples of natural history objects.
Top: for more than 200 years, relevant object information was most often recorded in the form of hand-written labels and inventories. Bottom: Natural history museums directly intersect with social sciences, although the connections often go unrecognised. Top left: Jan-Peter Kasper/Universität Jena, Top right: Sigrid Hof / Senckenberg Research Institute and Museum Frankfurt, Bottom left: image of Dr Fritz Haas (seated) and unnamed companions (men and women), in the act of collecting a new species Unio valentinus, Bottom right: natural history objects also appear in the context of art objects, photo: Emőke Dénes.

What is Collectomics, and Why Does It Matter?

At its core, the collectomics concept represents a holistic modern view of museum collections. This is not only about digitising collections, or about preserving species; rather this new approach shifts the perspective to treating collections as a single global dataset. Museums represent a dynamic and growing resource that can help answer some of the most pressing challenges in science and conservation. With the integration of digital tools, standardized data practices, and a commitment to open accessibility, collectomics offers a way to transform fragmented collections into a powerful, collective resource that also integrates the cultural and historical aspects of museum collections.

Collectomics envisions museums as interconnected nodes in a worldwide network, rather than isolated repositories of knowledge, and holds this ambition as the primary goal of collections digitisation. This framework allows researchers to trace the movement of species, monitor environmental changes over time, and predict future ecological shifts with greater accuracy. More importantly, it connects beyond the realm of natural sciences to other disciplines. Natural history specimens are objects that were collected by people—including often-uncredited local knowledge holders.

The accessory information about the life and work of those human facets informs our use of museum objects. For example, if we can identify the handwriting on an original collection label, the lifetime of that person can constrain the collecting date even if it was not written down, and this adds to the biological knowledge about the specimen. Conversely, the types of objects and observations recorded by a person inform the understanding of the historical context.

For an increasingly diverse range of scientists, museum data contribute to work without actually depending on physically examining the original objects. They can analyse high-resolution images, genetic data, and historical records without leaving their own labs. Collectomics puts the original objects as the centre of gravity, acknowledging that preserved specimens  underpin the scientific replicability of this rapidly growing suite of applications. 

Natural history museum collection.
Natural history collections are iconic in biodiversity research and yet much of their potential impact remains untapped. Photograph by Sven Tränkner, Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt, Germany.

Looking Ahead: How Collectomics Can Shape the Future

Beyond envisioned technical advancements, collectomics is fundamentally about people. It is about the researchers who dedicate their lives to studying biodiversity, the curators who meticulously preserve specimens, and the students who might one day make groundbreaking discoveries using these collections.

A database is more than just a digital version of a collection—it is structured, searchable, and interconnected, allowing for new patterns and insights to emerge. Physical collections, like a library, must follow a particular a priori organisation. Books on a shelf might be arranged by subject, author, the colour of the dustjacket, or just the order they were unpacked. Zoological and botanical collections are typically arranged taxonomically, while geological collections are organised stratigraphically. And just like running your eyes across a bookshelf, physically browsing a collection often turns up serendipitous inspiration and discovery. Once specimens and their associated data are digitised, different kinds of unexpected relationships and trends can be uncovered. In a collection organised based on systematics, it is almost impossible to answer simple geographical questions like “How many specimens do you have from Malaysia?” because the relevant material is scattered across countless diverse taxonomic groups. The power of digitisation is enabling cross-cutting queries, on geography, time, and the activities of human contributors. This does not replace the need for well organised, well maintained physical collections, but instead unlocks the full potential.

Graph showing the great extent to which records are undigitised.
Digital records are only a small fraction of global museum records. The black line represents a linear increase of the number of collection objects in time from the late 1700s. The dashed lines show three model projections for digitisation: in the best-case model prediction, museums might achieve complete digitisation at the earliest around the year 2071, but if there is no acceleration (red line) the global digitisation gap will continue to increase.

The importance of collections digitisation has long been recognised. However, this has progressed in a patchwork of small projects, often funded for specific research interests. As collections are continuously growing, the rate of growth may be outpacing even modern digitsation efforts. Collectomics offers an outlook that depends on, and also motivates, a total-collections approach. The power of collectomics emerges only when it is applied to everything, everywhere, in interconnecting museum collections including natural history and beyond.

By making collections more accessible, collectomics also contributes to democratising and diversifying science. Historically, access to rare specimens was limited to those with the resources to travel or with institutional connections. But with a collectomics approach, a high school student in a small town can study the same butterfly as a leading entomologist at a major university. A researcher in the Global South can contribute just as meaningfully to biodiversity studies as someone in the Global North. By embracing this new framework, museums are not only preserving history—we are unlocking its full potential.

Original source

Sigwart JD, Schleuning M, Brandt A, Pfenninger M, Saeedi H, Borsch T, Häffner E, Lücking R, Güntsch A, Trischler H, Töpfer T, Wesche K, Consortium C (2025) Collectomics – towards a new framework to integrate museum collections to address global challenges. Natural History Collections and Museomics 2: 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.2.148855

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Natural History Collections and Museomics launches with its inaugural editorial

Pensoft has officially launched its latest Diamond Open Access journal, Natural History Collections and Museomics (NHCM), with the publication of its inaugural editorial.

Titled “Enlighten the Marvels: A New Journal Dedicated to Natural History Museums, Collections, and Their Role in Interpreting a Changing World,” the article outlines the journal’s mission to address gaps in research and practice in the field of natural history collections.

Penosft stand at a conference with a large poster promoting Natural History Collecions and Museomics.
Natural History Collections and Museomics promoted by Pensoft at the 2024 International Congress of Entomology in Kyoto, Japan.

Editors-in-Chief Dr. Franco Andreone, Prof. Shuqiang Li, Dr. Shelley James and Deborah Paul penned the editorial alongside Pensoft’s CEO and founder Prof. Lyubomir Penev and COO Prof. Pavel Stoev. Their contribution builds on the recent official announcement of the journal’s launch on the ARPHA Platform.

The new journal, the editorial team writes, aims to tap the potential of natural history collections to confront global challenges such as climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, and zoonotic diseases.

“[Natural history museums] need visible allies, and we call for other disciplines, university departments, industry and governments to stand up and actively support the care and development of collections and the collective expertise and data connected across them,” reads the editorial. 

“Modern technologies and the rapid development of science make it possible to apply new transformative methods and approaches to the study of collection materials, which may reveal important information from an innovative and evolutionary point of view.”

Supported by CETAF (Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities), Europe’s leading voice for taxonomy and systematic biology, NHCM encourages interdisciplinary approaches and collaborations across fields such as taxonomy, conservation, education, ethics, and museum studies.  

Read the editorial in full here.

Submissions to the journal are open, and the first articles will be published in 2025. Researchers, scholars, and practitioners are invited to contribute. 

For more information and submission guidelines, please visit the Natural History Collections and Museomics website. You can also follow the journal on X, Facebook and Bluesky.

Forgotten species: the crucial role of taxonomy and natural history collections in saving lost biodiversity

As a growing number of species face extinction, both researchers and the general public tend to focus on attractive, well-known and charismatic fauna and flora. But what about the species that have disappeared from scientific recognition altogether? 

Research published in our open-access journal Nature Conservation sheds light on how historic taxonomic errors and misinterpretations have led to the disappearance of many species from science’s radar, highlighting the crucial role that  taxonomy and natural history collections (NHCs) can play in rediscovering and conserving biodiversity.

Research paper: ‘Lost species, neglected taxonomy, and the role of natural history collections and synonymization in the identification of the World’s forgotten biodiversity’ by Spartaco Gippoliti, Simone Farina and Franco Andreone. 

Forgotten species and taxonomic inertia

Many species that were described long ago have been overlooked due to erroneous synonymisation, a process whereby one species is mistakenly classified under another’s name, generally because of the scarce number of specimens available. These species, the authors now refer to as ‘long-lost synonymised species,’ can fall out of awareness for decades, even centuries. 

The 20th century saw a general trend of ‘lumping’ species together, reducing the number of recognised taxa, especially within well-known vertebrate groups. Taxonomic inertia – the persistence of outdated classifications – has caused many species to remain under-recognised, with their conservation statuses too often overlooked. This problem is described among better-known vertebrates, but is also likely present in some of the best studied invertebrates.

The importance of natural history collections

More than simply relics of the past, natural history collections provide a contemporary and essential resource for taxonomists working to untangle these historical errors. Museum specimens allow scientists to re-examine old classifications, using modern tools and methods to correct mistakes and uncover new taxa. Recent advances in ‘museomics’ – the study of genetic material from museum specimens – have opened new possibilities for species identification and conservation.

A 'Geoffroy's cat' laying in grass.
Leopardus geoffroyi. Credit: diegocarau via iNaturalist.

Such breakthroughs have led to the revalidation of the Neotropical genus Leopardus and the African wolf, Canis anthus, which had been synonymised for decades. Without natural history collections and the associated holotypes, the nomenclature of these species might have remained obscured, and their conservation needs unmet or delayed.

Natural History Collections and Museomics

Pensoft recently launched a new journal titled Natural History Collections and Museomics (NHCM).The publication comes at a pivotal moment in which taxonomists face the challenges of dwindling resources and fewer scientists entering the field. Through the publication of important open-access research, the journal aims to play a crucial role in bridging the gap between traditional taxonomy and modern conservation efforts. 

New Diamond OA journal Natural History Collections and Museomics launches on ARPHA Platform

Furthermore, by highlighting the essential role of taxonomy and natural history collections, NHCM will support the rediscovery of species long lost to science and help to conserve the world’s forgotten biodiversity. As the field of museomics grows, so too does the hope of rediscovering species that have been hidden in plain sight. The new journal already benefits from a competent and varied editorial board, including two of the authors of the Nature Conservation paper, Franco Andreone and Spartaco Gippoliti.

If the scientific community rally behind taxonomy and natural history collections, ensuring these vital tools are integrated into future biodiversity assessments, we can hope to preserve not just the species we know, but those we have forgotten.

Original source:

Gippoliti S, Farina S, Andreone F (2024) Lost species, neglected taxonomy, and the role of natural history collections and synonymization in the identification of the World’s forgotten biodiversity. Nature Conservation 56: 119-126. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.56.132036