Behind the scenes at the museum

• Autores: Christopher Kemp
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3148, 2017, págs. 36-39
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • More than 1000 new beetle species are described each year from the Natural History Museum's collection alone. And it's not just insects that are found languishing in museums: new species of snakes, fish, amphibians, reptiles, snails, spiders, crustaceans and even large mammals have all emerged from the archives. Museum collections are now at least as important as field expeditions for discovering new species. By some estimates, 75% of newly described species are already part of a collection somewhere on the planet. But with museums worldwide falling victim to neglect and underfunding, these vital sources of biological knowledge are in peril.