Mammal collections in Brazil

Abstract

Advances in our knowledge on the planet biodiversity have been largely dependent upon biological collections, and today they continue to be the cornerstone of several disciplines. Recently, the Brazilian Society of Mammalogists established the Mammal Collections Committee (CCM-SBMz) aiming to collect, organize and share information on the mammalian collections in Brazil, as well as support their management. As a first step, our goal here is to provide a diagnosis of mammal collections in Brazil, and the CCM-SBMz contacted 100 collections and successfully registered 71, distributed in all five Brazilian regions. These collections house ca. 372,200 specimens, with 60% of these concentrated in three institutions: MNRJ, MZUSP, and MPEG. The material more commonly deposited are voucher specimens. The database is completely digitized or in process of digitization in most collections, however, this information is not widely available online. The geographic coverage of the collections is mainly regional or national. In number of specimens, Rodentia is the most frequent order in the collections, followed by Carnivora. At the family level, Didelphidae, Cricetidae, and Felidae are the more frequent taxa. This study shows that Brazil houses an important volume of mammalian specimens. However, considering the country’s continental size and high mammal diversity, these numbers are still far from a sufficient representation of the Brazilian mammalian diversity. The results summarize the first efforts of the CCM-SBMz and the committee will continue monitoring the mammal collections in Brazil, as well as working to help the management and growth of collections.