History Museum Research Articles

Building New Opportunities: Planning Towards Integrated, Open and Accessible Natural History Collections

The accessibility, value and role of natural history collections (NHCs) for nature conservation, education and society in general, increases over time. The concept of NHCs evolves through advancements in information systems, research methods, and collection studies (Miller et al. 2020). Therefore, we need a new infrastructure for NHCs, which provides the necessary physical and organizational structures to support this evolving approach, including digitization labs, digital solutions for improved workflows, and architectural designs like publicly viewable collection workplaces. With this concept, the contemporary museum constitutes a shared space that recognises the importance of nature, supported by a science-based approach. The Estonian Museum of Natural History (EMNH) is currently making one of the largest developmental leaps in its 160-year history. In total, approximately 360,000 specimens, dating back 200 years, are preserved in the museum’s storage facilities. The museum’s collection contains specimens from around the world and is focused on Estonia’s natural heritage. The collection includes extensive mycological, zoological, botanical, geological, and science-related historical artifacts (e.g., collecting equipment, models of specimens), along with photo and multimedia collections. Currently, 95% of the museum's collections are digitized. The specimen data is published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), with the original data housed on the PlutoF and Geocollections platforms. Although the museum plays a significant role in advancing the natural sciences, people outside the museum's circle might find it difficult to perceive how vast and unique the collections are, and what kind of work is done behind the scenes. The role of collections in science, education or society in general is also only vaguely acknowledged. By constructing a new building for the EMNH, scheduled to open in 2027, new opportunities arise. As a new community centre, the museum provides the opportunity for visitors, emerging professionals, citizen scientists, students, etc. to enhance and share their knowledge of the importance of biodiversity. Some examples of the numerical growth the new building will bring, compared to old museum facilities, are as follows: the museum could attract 200 000 more visitors than we are able to welcome in the current building. The new building will have ten times more exhibition space and the collection area will enlarge more than 50% from its current size. Many infrastructural and conceptual ideas applied in the new building will contribute to integrating our NHCs into society. Extra workspace will provide sufficient room for curators and students, researchers, and interns. New curator workrooms contain flexible spaces for different projects. The exhibition hall features display windows allowing visitors to peek into the curator’s workrooms, collection spaces, and the wet preparations lab. By embracing the principle of an open collection, the museum offers a unique opportunity to observe how specimens are stored and what procedures are involved in their preservation. This way the usually hidden part of the museum is integrated to the exhibition. A special room is planned for a mixed collection, comprised of a variety of differently prepared specimens and a display of various storage methods. The room will be primarily used to welcome groups and provide educational visits. For hands-on education, the new building will house a learning laboratory, classrooms and a space with direct access from the street for workshops, meetings, and experimental exhibitions, making it easier to engage passers-by. The exhibition area will have a multifunctional activity space within the exhibition, where museum staff can showcase various sections of their work. The digitization lab provides the opportunity to create high-quality photos and digital twins of specimens (Reinhardt et al. 2024), making them more accessible among scientists and the wider public. Improved digital imaging quality enhances research possibilities for photo analysis and AI applications. The new workshop also provides an excellent opportunity for conservation and taxidermy of specimens. We engaged target groups from school children to specialists during the planning process to make a museum that fulfills their needs. The new museum is planned as a platform that engages the society, initiates discussions, and brings together various target and interest groups to discuss environmental topics. By planning and building new infrastructure for the EMNH, we develop both digital and physical functionality and make our NHCs more accessible to all interest groups. The concept of open collections brings the behind-the-scenes activities to everyday visitors, engages people, and informs them about the opportunities and the role of NHCs. The new core exhibition and the science-based environmental-educational activities tightly linked to our NHCs will create a new incubator for positive changes. By developing and introducing new methods of making our NHCs accessible to a wider audience, the collections can better assist the society in making decisions and raising awareness.

Unifying Community Efforts on Registration and Data Rights

At the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (SI NMNH), the Assistant Registrar and Informatics Manager in the Department of Paleobiology (Paleo) have identified key linkages between registering collections (documentation for specimens and data through acquisitions, loans and disposals) and management of digitized collections, especially for usage right designation. Both roles require extensive collaboration on a shared framework for managing data related to the provenance of fossil specimens and rights associated with any derivative digital assets. This eliminated a disconnect in overlapping responsibilities: those typically siloed in museum registration practices (e.g., provenance data, intellectual property rights) and the data typically siloed in collections management and digitization workflows (e.g., data quality, digital asset management, and usage rights). Paleo shifted to a new practical approach and mindset focused on communal thinking. This propelled implementation of data standard practices and laid the building blocks for a shared community perspective on digitizing paleontological collections. Since 2020, Paleo established processing workflows for digital asset requests of the fossil collections (new digital asset creations vs. use of existing digital assets) and baseline understandings about rights of digital assets. These products led to a comprehensive effort to outline SI NMNH’s options to designate usage rights for digital assets (Table 1) and distribute basic understandings about Smithsonian Terms of Use and Smithsonian Open Access Policy (SI OA) across SI NMNH. Paleo explored this topic further by engaging in virtual meetings, conferences, presentations and informal discussions with the collections management staff and data managers across SI NMNH and externally with domestic and international groups such as the Paleo Data Working Group (PDWG), Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) Registrars Group, and Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), to develop data standards initiatives for loans, permits and sensitive data (Fig. 1). Through regular community engagement, Paleo forged a concise, yet evolving, perspective on digitizing collections, which aligned both registration and informatics data management needs within the department and museum (Fig. 2). This multi-professional perspective enables the promotion of shared community knowledge and understanding about data rights. The primary purpose is to balance consistent goals, current needs, and long-term outcomes with the flexibility to adapt our practices based on institution-specific policies, new research methods, and varying domestic and international regulations and laws. The notable outcomes from almost four years of work are highlighted and incorporated into Paleo's departmental policy and documentation requirements for processing and fulfilling digital asset creation or use requests workflows and distribution of this information to the public website for visitors and borrowers. However, there are still persisting challenges related to registering and managing these digital assets. There are immediate and future obstacles such as: limitations in effective tracking methods to record creation of digital assets, use of digital assets, and designation of what usage rights and when the decision was made; gaps in community practice, policy and regulations at the institutional level and globally; past practices in workflows and staff structures or lack thereof, which have left digital assets in limbo without means of accessing the data or documentation to identify the appropriate use options and rights. We see a need to continue asking questions. How are varying policies across institutions globally, impacting compliance concerns in registration for sharing sensitive information with other research institutions? How have or will new research techniques and opportunities impact the need for flexibility in practices and decisions? Are there alternative ways to utilize a Collections Management Systems (CMS) or use other platforms to track, store and manage the digital assets? How have others engaged in community discussions to address overlapping needs for data standards and registration of digitized collections? These identify significant inconsistencies across the community that need further discussion with subject-matter experts before effective and comprehensive decisions in data standards for managing digitized collections can be made. Ultimately, there are outstanding questions and challenges at all stages for registering, digitizing and managing digital assets of natural history collections. We continue to unveil nuances in thinking about this topic and find the need for structures of shared knowledge built and actively engaged in by a professionally diverse community. The utilization of subject-matter experts encourages collaboration and alternative perspectives to standardize operations and policy while expanding community efforts and awareness.

A Snakemake Toolkit for the Batch Assembly, Annotationand Phylogenetic Analysis of Mitochondrial Genomes and Ribosomal Genes From Genome Skims of Museum Collections.

Low coverage 'genome-skims' are often used to assemble organelle genomes and ribosomal gene sequences for cost-effective phylogenetic and barcoding studies. Natural history collections hold invaluable biological information, yet poor preservation resulting in degraded DNA often hinders polymerase chain reaction-based analyses. However, it is possible to generate libraries and sequence the short fragments typical of degraded DNA to generate genome-skims from museum collections. Here we introduce a snakemake toolkit comprised of three pipelines skim2mito, skim2rrna and gene2phylo, designed to unlock the genomic potential of historical museum specimens using genome skimming. Specifically, skim2mito and skim2rrna perform the batch assembly, annotation and phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial genomes and nuclear ribosomal genes, respectively, from low-coverage genome skims. The third pipeline gene2phylo takes a set of gene alignments and performs phylogenetic analysis of individual genes, partitioned analysis of concatenated alignments and a phylogenetic analysis based on gene trees. We benchmark our pipelines with simulated data, followed by testing with a novel genome skimming dataset from both recent and historical solariellid gastropod samples. We show that the toolkit can recover mitochondrial and ribosomal genes from poorly preserved museum specimens of the gastropod family Solariellidae, and the phylogenetic analysis is consistent with our current understanding of taxonomic relationships. The generation of bioinformatic pipelines that facilitate processing large quantities of sequence data from the vast repository of specimens held in natural history museum collections will greatly aid species discovery and exploration of biodiversity over time, ultimately aiding conservation efforts in the face of a changing planet.

Mobilising Historical Botanical Data as Research

Abstract The ‘Vegetable Substances’ collection consists of 8,811 surviving botanical objects and a manuscript catalogue that contains over 12,700 handwritten descriptions of the contents of these boxes, according to the collector, Hans Sloane (1660–1752). This pre-Linnean collection forms part of the founding botanical collection of the Natural History Museum in London, and currently sits at the top of the Darwin Centre. The process of transforming this physical historical collection into something digital began over a decade ago and this focus piece reflects on this digital practice to date. It describes the different stages of creating a public-facing digital resource, and how this practice of mobilising data functions as research.

A Langur from Sumatra

Abstract Researchers interested in the colonial provenance of European natural history collections find themselves currently in an ambiguous position. On one hand, there is a fast-growing amount of digital services that provide them with statistics, names and lists of objects that have been accumulated in former colonial areas and are now stored in natural history museums in the Global North. On the other hand, these digital collection services fail to provide researchers with archival information on historical collection contexts, local names and meanings of animals and plants, and the labour, knowledges, colonial infrastructure and (epistemic) violence that were necessary to move tens of millions of natural objects across the globe. By zooming in on the digital representation of a black-crested Sumatran langur collected on the island of Sumatra (Indonesia) in the 1830s, this short paper reflects on the impact of these data absences on the further development of large-scale data infrastructures in the field. Inspired by earlier problematization of the digital turn in collection-based biodiversity sciences, this paper argues for the more sustained use of archival evidence so as to rethink what it means to infrastructure ‘biodiversity heritage’ collections in a digital age.

Activism of Re-Membering: An Undoing of Museum History and Anthropocentric Ratiocination Through Priya Sarukkai Chabria’s Clone (2018)

The present article examines Priya Sarukkai Chabria’s Clone (2018) as a diffractive reworking of time, a performance of spacetime (re)configuring and speculated im/possibilities. It contests the humanist convictions of relations, time, space, matter and meaning by bringing to the fore an articulation of feminist new materialist time-being and its relational embeddedness, which consolidate the possibility of tracing the practices of historical erasure, cultural amnesia and political avoidance. Probing through the questions of history, memory and materiality, the study posits re-membering as a counterpolitics to museum history and an­­thropocentric ratiocination while it narrativizes re-turning and travel-hopping as the embodied material labor of undoing the hegemonic propensity. The article extends its inquiry beyond the novel’s narrative construct that heightens the idiosyncrasies of a throwaway society, offering insights into state-led biopolitics, neo-cannibalism and consumerist expropriation of the biotechnological beings into disposable trash. By engaging with Chabria’s Clone (2018), this treatise contributes to a relational understanding of multifarious ontological, ethical and existential implications inherent in the post-anthropocentric symbiosis of naturecultures, human-nonhuman and matter-meaning, albeit highlighting the activism of re-membering as equitably about new agentic configurations, new entangled subjectivities, new im/possibilities and ecosystemic inclusive mattering.

Accepting the decay of plastic artifacts in museums: pasts and futures surfacing in a life preserver from sunken MS Estonia

ABSTRACT This is a case study of a deformed life preserver originating from the ferryboat MS Estonia that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994. In this post qualitatively positioned research article, I argue that transformed plastic is an active agent of both the decision-making and interpretation of a museum object made of plastic. This article contributes in a new way to the discussion of how museums of cultural history could manage deteriorating plastic objects. So far, a scientific materialist approach, guided by research in conservation science, has emphasised the need for special conditions to safeguard rapidly deteriorating plastic artefacts for future generations. However, the agency of deteriorating plastic does not only call for conserving the plastic material ‘forever’, but it also requires letting go of the ideal of minimising the further degradation of plastic.

PROVENIR DEL PORVENIR

In Provenir del porvenir Urbano hovers through the fields of sociology, archaeology and philosophy while reflecting on the different mediations of the work: the guided tour, the performance lecture and the video essay. The exposition is based on a speculative artistic-historiographic project where the artist, in the context and aesthetics of the Museum of History, connects her own genealogy with the North. The investigation is a response to recurrent question to people of color living in Scandinavia: “Where do you come from?” This question leads to an epistemological enquire, discussing the limits of knowledge production on a scientific basis versus knowledge production on an artistic basis.

A queen’s tale: Assessing the hidden potential of beeswax specimens in Natural History Museum collections

Background Natural history museum specimens of historical honeybees have been successfully used to explore the species’ genomic past, indicating fast and rapid changes between historical and modern specimens, possibly as a response to current challenges. In our study we explore a potential new untapped archive from natural history collections - specimens of historical beeswax. We examine an intact and closed Apis mellifera mellifera queen cell specimen from the 19th century. Methods In our study, we examine the queen cell by X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). Subsequently, a micro-destructive approach was used to explore the possibility of protein extraction from the cell for a palaeoproteomic analysis. Results Our results to reveal a perfectly preserved queen bee inside her cell. We were successful in extracting proteins from the residual material inside the queen cell, and were able to identify the material as containing several bee-related proteins, including major royal jelly proteins (MJRPs). Conclusions Our study show that studies on specimens such as the queen cell provide valuable information about the past rearing of queens, their diet, and their development, which is relevant for understanding current honeybees and their challenges.

Descriptions of <i>Anthrenus</i> (s. str.) <i>senegalensis</i>, <i>Anthrenus</i> (s. str.) <i>crypticus</i>, a new species from Senegal, and <i>Anthrenus</i> (s. str.) <i>fosteri</i>, a new species from Algeria (Coleoptera: Dermestidae: Megatominae)

All specimens labelled Anthrenus senegalensis were borrowed from the Natural History Museum, London. A. senegalensis is a poorly known species, so the aim is to provide a good description of the species associated with habitus and genitalia images. Three species were noted in the sample: A. senegalensis, A. crypticus sp. nov., and A. fosteri sp. nov.. A. crypticus and A. fosteri are described along with A. senegalensis, the most likely confusion species. Habitus and genitalia images of all three species are provided.

Cultural Heritage Disaster Risk Management Network Promotion Council & Natural History Museums: Pre- & Post-Disaster Response in Japan

Cultural Heritage Disaster Risk Management Network Promotion Council & Natural History Museums: Pre- & Post-Disaster Response in Japan

The curious case of the Dana platypus and what it can teach us about how lead shotgun pellets behave in fluid preserved museum specimens and may limit their scientific value.

Fluid preserved animal specimens in the collections of natural history museums constitute an invaluable archive of past and present animal diversity. Well-preserved specimens have a shelf-life spanning centuries and are widely used for e.g. anatomical, taxonomical and genetic studies. The way specimens were collected depended on the type of animal and the historical setting. As many small mammals and birds were historically collected by shooting, large quantities of heavy metal residues, primarily lead, may have been introduced into the sample in the form of lead shot pellets. Over time, these pellets may react with tissue fluids and/or the fixation and preservation agents and corrode into lead salts. As these chemicals are toxic, they could constitute a health issue to collection staff. Additionally, heavy element chemicals interfere with several imaging technologies increasingly used for non-invasive studies, and may confound anatomical and pathological investigations on affected specimens. Here we present a case-study based on platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and other small mammals containing lead pellets from the collection of The Natural History Museum of Denmark.

Valorization of Historical Natural History Collections Through Digitization: The Algarium Vatova-Schiffner.

Digitization of Natural History Collections (NHCs) and mobilization of their data are pivotal for their study, preservation, and accessibility. Furthermore, thanks to digitization and mobilization, Natural History Museums can better showcase their collections, potentially attracting more visitors. However, the optimization of digitization workflows, especially when addressing small and/or historical NHCs, remains a challenge. Starting from a practical example, this contribution aims at providing a general guideline for the digitization of historical NHCs, with a particular focus on pre-digitization planning, during which some decisions should be made for ensuring a smooth, cost- and time-effective digitization process. The digitization of the algarium by Aristocle Vatova and Victor Schiffner was carried out following an image-to-data workflow, which allowed for reducing the handling of the specimens. The metadata were organized according to the Darwin Core standard scheme, and, together with the digital images of the specimens, have been made available to the scientific community and to the general public via an online portal. Thanks to the application of digital technologies and standardized methods, the accessibility of the collection has been enhanced, and its integration with historical data is possible, highlighting the relevance of shared experiences and protocols in advancing the digital transformation of natural history heritage.

Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho’s scientific correspondence: historical connections between oceanography and marine biology from Portugal (1919–1949)

This article presents Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho’s scientific correspondence between 1919 and 1949, both nationally and internationally. It consists of 181 unpublished letters, exchanged with 30 relevant figures belonging to 11 countries, including France, the UK, Croatia, Japan, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Morocco, Belgium and Spain. This correspondence shows a network among different research institutions devoted to the marine sciences. This includes biological stations, such as the Istituto Italo-Germanico di Biologia Marina, laboratories and museums, e. g. the British Museum of Natural History. At the national level, the correspondence between Ramalho and Augusto Nobre represents a historical axis between Lisbon and Porto, involving two of the most relevant scientists in the fields of oceanography and marine biology. At the international level, Ramalho corresponded with personalities such as Henry Gascoyne Maurice and other members of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, including for example the oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman. This correspondence represents an archival discovery of the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere in Lisbon, marking a decisive historical scientific moment for both Portuguese and international contexts in the field of marine sciences. This article aims to reconstruct Portugal’s internal and external networks.

Effects of Urbanization on Community Composition and Conditions of Birds in Wetland Ecosystems

Urbanization in wetlands has negatively impacted bird species diversity and populations. It is important to be able to predict the consequences for avian biodiversity and to identify wetlands of special value to the maintenance of local wetland communities. This study involved conducting point counts across four permanent urban wetlands at the University of Florida and three retention ponds in the Gainesville, FL vicinity to observe patterns in wetland bird species diversity and populations. This study also utilized data from the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) to explore differences in phenotypes of wetland bird specimens. The local wetlands showed trends where specific species thrived in one type of area versus the other. Egrets were frequently observed in larger wetlands, and double-crested cormorants were observed more frequently in smaller ones. Additionally, retention ponds showed promise as a conservation method, dependent on their depth and size. The largest retention pond attracted many bird species in great numbers, showing promise for methods to negate negative the impact of human activity and climate change. Characterization for data collected at the FLMNH on both weight and species analyzed across numerous regional locations showed a negative trend between specimen weight and time progression.

Приобщение учеников младших классов к народной культуре малой родины средствами школьного музея

The authors present a museum lesson on the topic: “The decoration of a peasant hut”, conducted with first-grade students at the historical and ethnographic museum “Origins” of the Novooskolskaya secondary comprehensive school with an in-depth study of individual subjects. Based on this lesson, the possibilities of using school museum resources are considered, contributing to the formation and development of interest in the folk culture of their small homeland in younger students, which meets the requirements of the Federal State Standard of Primary General Education.

First record of <i>Abrothrix olivacea</i> (Waterhouse, 1837) in Peru based on historical material from Tacna

Abrotrichini is the sigmodontine tribe with the fewest species in Peru, known only from two species: Abrothrix andina and Ab. jelskii, both distributed in the high Andean regions of Peru above 3000 m in altitude. A detailed review of the morphology of historical specimens collected in the Tacna department and identified as Akodon mollis was conducted. As a result, we found that the examined specimens corresponded to Abrothrix olivacea, a species previously known only from Chile and Argentina. This discovery represents the first record of this species in Peru, extending its distribution range 165 km north of its previous northernmost record in Quebrada Camarones, Arica-Parinacota, Chile. Furthermore, this finding significantly reduces the distribution range of Akodon mollis to the northwestern region of Peru. We also provide key craniodental characters to differentiate species of Abrothrix and Akodon in southwestern Peru and northern Chile. For Peru, this record increases the diversity of mammals to 588 species and rodents to 201 species. In the case of the Tacna department, mammalian diversity increases to 47 species. This work highlights the value of natural history museum collections in enhancing our understanding of species diversity.

Beginnings of Polish archaeological museums in the 19th century

The first Polish archaeological museums or those with archaeological departments – institutions dealing withgathering collections, conducting research, organizing exhibitions and publishing works devoted to archaeology, as it was understood at that time – began to be established in the mid-19th century. They were created by scientific societies or on the initiative of private individuals. They were: the Museum of Antiquities of the Kraków Scientific Society, the Museum of Antiquities in Vilnius, the Museum of Polish and Slavic Antiquities in the Grand Duchy of Poznań, the Museum of the Toruń Scientific Society, the Museum of the Lubomirski Princes in Lviv and the Dzieduszycki Natural History Museum in Lviv. The article discusses the beginnings of Polish archaeological museums, their creation, the scope and shape of the collections, methods of obtaining artefacts, the headquarters and the further fate of these institutions.

Four new species of Crinopseudoa (Araneae: Corinnidae) from West Africa

Four new species of Crinopseudoa are described from West Africa. Crinopseudoa kru sp. nov. (male, female) and C. sinoensis sp. nov. (male, female) were collected as part of a new sustainable oil palm project in southern Liberia, C. nimba sp. nov. (male, female) from expeditions to Mount Nimba in Guinea, and C. elisabethae sp. nov. (male) from historic museum material from Ivory Coast. An updated key to species is presented as we increase the number of known species of Crinopseudoa from 11 to 15.

An Information Ecosystem Map of Resources Supporting the Mobilization and Discovery of Paleontological Specimen Data

Over the last decade, the United States paleontological collections community has invested heavily in the digitization of specimen-based data, including over 10 million USD funded through the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program. Fossil specimen data—9.0 million records and counting (Global Biodiversity Information Facility 2024)—are now accessible on open science platforms such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). However, the full potential of this data is far from realized due to fundamental challenges associated with mobilization, discoverability, and interoperability of paleontological information within the existing cyberinfrastructure landscape and data pipelines. Additionally, it can be difficult for individuals with varying expertise to develop a comprehensive understanding of the existing landscape due to its breadth and complexity. Here, we present preliminary results from a project aiming to explore how we might address these problems. Funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and Arizona State University will result in, among other products, an “ecosystem map” for the paleontological collections community. This map will be an information-rich visualization of entities (e.g. concepts, systems, platforms, mechanisms, drivers, tools, documentation, data, standards, people, organizations) operating in, intersecting with, or existing in parallel to our domain. We are inspired and informed by similar efforts to map the biodiversity informatics landscape (Bingham et al. 2017) and the research infrastructure landscape (Distributed System of Scientific Collections 2024), as well as by many ongoing metadata cataloging projects, e.g. re3data and the Global Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl). Our strategy for developing this ecosystem map is to model the existing information and systems landscape by characterizing entities, e.g. potentially in a graph database as nodes with relationships to other nodes. The ecosystem map will enable us to provide guidance for communities working across different sectors of the landscape, promoting a shared understanding of the ecosystem that everyone works in together. We can also use the map to identify points of entry and engagement at various stages of the paleontological data process, and to engage diverse members within the paleontological community. We see three primary user types for this map: people new(er) to the community, people with expertise in a subset of the community, and people working to integrate initiatives and systems across communities. Each of these user types needs tailored access to the ecosystem map and its community knowledge. By promoting shared knowledge with the map, users will be able to identify their own space within the ecosystem and the connections or partnerships that they can utilize to expand their knowledge or resources, relieving the burden on any single individual to hold a comprehensive understanding. For example, the flow of taxonomic information between publications, collections, digital resources, and biodiversity aggregators is not straightforward or easy to understand. A person with expertise in collections care may want to use the ecosystem map to understand why taxonomic identifications associated with their specimen occurrence records are showing up incorrectly when published to GBIF. We envision that our final ecosystem map will visualize the flow of taxonomic information and how it is used to interpret specimen occurrence data, thereby highlighting to this user where problems may be happening and whom to ask for help in addressing them (Fig. 1). Ultimately, development of this map will allow us to identify mobilization pathways for paleontological data, highlight core cyberinfrastructure resources, define cyberinfrastructure gaps, strategize future partnerships, promote shared knowledge, and engage a broader array of expertise in the process. Contributing domain-based evidence FAIRly*2 requires expertise that bridges the content (e.g. paleontology) and the mechanics (e.g. informatics). By centering the role of humans in open science cyberinfrastructure throughout our process, we hope to develop systems that create and sustain such expertise.