From natural history to biodiversity: collections of discovery

• Published in: Archives of Natural History
• Main Author: Rainbow, Philip S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Edinburgh University Press 2005
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2005.32.2.221

The Natural History Museum, London, houses more than 70,000 jars with more than 5 million specimens of marine animals that constitute the Discovery collections. The Discovery collections are the specimens from the twentieth-century expeditions of British oceanographic ships, a series that began in 1904 with the return of the SY Discovery from the Antarctic. These marine collections are an irreplaceable asset in the history of biological oceanography, spanning a time of changes – change in the use of such collections and dramatic global environmental change. Collections of animals have graduated from being objects of wonder to satisfy curiosity to be essential reference collections for the taxonomy and nomenclature of the world's diversity, underpinning attempts to decipher patterns of marine biodiversity and evolutionary relationships. The Discovery collections offer a record of oceanic life as it was, before the demise of the great whales, before the ozone “hole” and before global warming. The foresight of the collectors of this unique archive can be rewarded by their use as an active research tool, using modern molecular and analytical techniques, and others yet to be imagined.