Adding value to collections: improving the data associated with Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon specimens held in the Natural History Museum, Tring

Abstract

In the bird collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring (NHMUK), and no doubt in many analogous collections elsewhere, older specimens are increasingly likely to have become divorced from some, or even all, of the data that once accompanied them. As the utility of such specimens for research depends in large part on their accompanying data, it is important, though time-consuming, to try to restore missing data to them. Stimulated by a genomic research project request to sample all Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon specimens in the NHMUK collection, this paper presents a case study of such an attempt. The results are used to highlight the importance that such investigation is factored into projects aiming to make museum specimen data available online.