National Museum Of Natural History Research Articles

One Hundred and Thirty-Five Years of Ornithology in Bulgaria: The Role of the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in the Development of Ornithology in Bulgaria—Representatives, Collections and Achievements

For the first time, an attempt has been made to present, chronologically and in a systematized form, the development of ornithological studies at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia (Bulgaria) from its foundation in the last decades of the 19th century to the present day. This 135-year period (1889–2024) includes the work of 12 curators of the ornithological collections. Their major contributions and most-significant ornithological publications are also presented.

Historical baleen plates indicate that once abundant Antarctic blue and fin whales demonstrated distinct migratory and foraging strategies.

Southern hemisphere blue (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia) and fin (Balaenoptera physalus) whales are the largest predators in the Southern Ocean, with similarities in morphology and distribution. Yet, understanding of their life history and foraging is limited due to current low abundances and limited ecological data. To address these gaps, historic Antarctic blue (n = 5) and fin (n = 5) whale baleen plates, collected in 1947-1948 and recently rediscovered in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, were analyzed for bulk (δ13C and δ15N) stable isotopes. Regular oscillations in isotopic ratios, interpreted as annual cycles, revealed that baleen plates contain approximately 6 years (14.35 ± 1.20 cm year-1) of life history data in blue whales and 4 years (16.52 ± 1.86 cm year-1) in fin whales. Isotopic results suggest that: (1) while in the Southern Ocean, blue and fin whales likely fed at the same trophic level but demonstrated niche differentiation; (2) fin whales appear to have had more regular annual migrations; and (3) fin whales may have migrated to ecologically distinct sub-Antarctic waters annually while some blue whales may have resided year-round in the Southern Ocean. These results reveal differences in ecological niche and life history strategies between Antarctic blue and fin whales during a time period when their populations were more abundant than today, and before major human-driven climatic changes occurred in the Southern Ocean.

"To honor and remember": An ethical awakening to African American remains in museums.

In 2021, amid surging activism in the Movement for Black Lives, the Smithsonian Institution's possession of the remains of thousands of African Americans drew widespread attention. In response, the Smithsonian and its National Museum of Natural History undertook a series of steps to assess these remains and to develop a policy for returning as many as possible to descendants and descendant communities, under changes that would apply to all non-Native American remains in Smithsonian collections. This paper reviews the actions taken to date and the work that is still in progress or planned. I contextualize these steps more broadly within an "ethical awakening" to African American remains that have long been present, studied, and displayed in collections across the museum community in the United States, where other institutions have faced similar challenges and changes.

Националният природонаучен музей при Българската академия на науките – 14 години на повторно възстановяване под ръководството на акад. проф. д-р Иван Костов 1974 – 1988 г.

With the restoration of its legal independence in 1974, a new stage in the development of the National Museum of Natural History began. From 1974 to 1988, it was led by the noted mineralogist Acad. Prof. Ivan Kostov. Part of the geological, paleontological, botanical and soil collections that were taken out in 1947 have been returned to the museum and its multidisciplinary natural science (and not only zoological) character is restored. From the “Museum” Section of the former Zoological Institute, it became the National Museum of Natural History, which fully lives up to its name. The enrichment of the collections, the construction of new departments and expositions, the growth of the state, the first expeditions in the country and abroad to collect natural specimens and the expansion of its international contacts are presented. His active and versatile work for the natural science education of the population and the importance of the museum as a cultural institution until the last but one year (1989) of the totalitarian rule of Bulgaria are shown.

Two new species of Hesperopenna Medvedev & Dang, 1981 (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae) from Singapore.

Two new species of Hesperopenna Medvedev & Dang, 1981 are described from Singapore: H.temaseksp. nov. and H.bakerisp. nov. The specimens of both new species were collected by Charles Fuller Baker and found in the unidentified Galerucinae material deposited in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Hesperopennatemaseksp. nov. is diagnosed by the black extreme elytral suture in the basal third, antennae longer than the body, the structure of the penis, and the last abdominal ventrite with two deep U-shaped incisions in females. Hesperopennabakerisp. nov. is diagnosed by the black tibia and first two tarsomeres, and the structure of the penis.

“Mining” the herbarium for hyperaccumulators: Discoveries of nickel and zinc (hyper)accumulation in the genus Noccaea (Brassicaceae) through X‐ray fluorescence herbarium scanning

AbstractX‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) is a relatively new method for non‐destructive elemental analysis of herbarium material that meets the scientific interest in being capable of discovering new hyperaccumulator plant species. Since the genus Noccaea (Brassicaceae family) is known to be one of the most numerous in term of the hyperaccumulator plant species it contains, especially those that hyperaccumulate Ni, the herbarium material available worldwide represents a great resource for expanding our knowledge of their elemental profiles. In this first systematic XRF scanning of herbarium specimens of the genus Noccaea, a total of 794 specimens from the collection of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris (MNHN) were analyzed, and the raw values obtained were corrected using regression formulas against inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy data. Hyperaccumulation of Ni was detected in 90 specimens covering 21 taxa, with Ni concentrations reaching up to 48,700 mg kg−1 in Noccaea cappadocica, an ultramaficophyte from Syria. Zinc concentrations above the hyperaccumulation threshold were found in 210 specimens covering 23 taxa, most of which belonged to different subspecies of Noccaea caerulescens, with the highest concentration reaching up to 56,200 mg kg−1 in N. caerulescens subsp. caerulescens. Although the accumulation of Ni and Zn is contrasting in most of the specimens studied, in 10 specimens, predominantly belonging to N. caerulescens, simultaneous hyperaccumulation of Ni and Zn was found. This study also revealed previously unknown hyperaccumulation of Ni in several Noccaea taxa, as well as a simultaneous hyperaccumulation of Ni and Zn that needs to be confirmed by further experimental and field studies.

Origins of Forensic Anthropology in the United States

Traditional histories of forensic anthropology focus on key figures, events, and/or publications within a larger narrative of disciplinary formation and expansion. These histories typically highlight individuals such as Thomas Dwight or institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. This project represents an interdisciplinary collaboration with the goal of shedding new light onto the origins of forensic anthropology in the United States. By pulling from a number of published scholarly sources, as well as some unpublished correspondence, this project expands upon the more established historical events concerning the history of forensic anthropology. Here we argue that the origins of contemporary forensic anthropology not only trace back to the work of Wilton Krogman but that Krogman’s forensic anthropology must be understood through the life and work of his mentor, T. Wingate Todd, as well as the Hamann-Todd Collection, early efforts toward personal identification of human skeletal remains, and a complex amalgamation of US and UK influences that Krogman was exposed to through Todd’s mentorship efforts.

The Identification Potential of Atherosclerotic Calcifications in the Context of Forensic Anthropology.

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease that, in its more developed stages, can lead to the calcification of fatty plaques on the walls of arteries, resulting in the appearance of new bone elements. It is a condition that has been studied and documented little in the context of paleopathology, especially in the framework of forensic anthropology. This article analyzed the skeletal remains of 71 individuals (35 females and 36 males) from the Luís Lopes Identified Collection of the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon, 31 of whom had an autopsy report. An attempt was made to ascertain whether these bone elements resulting from atherosclerotic calcification would resist cadaveric decomposition and whether they would be recoverable several years after burial, and a survey was carried out of their distribution according to sex and age, as well as their association with other pathologies, such as osteoporosis and cardiac and renal pathologies. An imaging analysis of an atherosclerotic plaque was also carried out to complement the macroscopic analysis and present other methods of identifying plaques. It was concluded that each atherosclerotic calcification has a unique profile, which can be useful for identification, especially in cases where the individual shows a severe condition. In terms of identification potential, the analysis of calcified atherosclerotic plaques can be useful, as they can corroborate or reject an identification. However, it always requires the existence of ante-mortem imaging exams and must always be used in addition to other identification methods. Regardless of the identification, these plaques are bone elements resulting from a pathology and should, therefore, be known and recognized by the scientific community.

On the checkered beetle species (Coleoptera: Cleridae) in the collections of “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History, Bucharest (Romania)

The paper deals with twenty-five species of checkered beetles of the Palaearctic Region preserved in the collections of “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History. All species have been revised. Within these species, Trichodes apiarius has been found to be the most common and widespread species in Romania.

A revision of Silurian corals (Anthozoa: Heliolitoidea) from the collection of the National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine (Kyiv)

The collection of Silurian heliolitoid corals revised in this study has been assembled by the first author (V.G.) for four decades. The material was collected predominantly from Silurian outcrops and borehole cores in the Middle Dnister area. Some of the specimens were found in Belarus and Moldova during field works and field trips. The scientific works were part of the projects elaborated by a collective of scientists from the Institute of Geological Sciences, NAS of Ukraine and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The working group consisted of geologists who graduated from the university in 1965 to 1970. Professors M. M. Klushnikov and O. L. Einor were our advisors. P. D. Tsegelnjuk was the oldest and the leader of the group. The collecting of specimens started in 1966 and now is ready to summarise the results. In the last fifty years, a large collection of fossil cnidarians from Silurian deposits has been assembled in the course of long-term geological field expeditions organised to study outcrops, cores of boreholes, and collect fossils. More than fifty outcrops and one hundred boreholes were studied in the territory of the Podillian region and the west slope of the Ukrainian Shield from Volyn to Snake Island. The collection comprises nearly ten thousand samples and 6000 thin sections of cnidarians. The total number of the studied samples belonging to Heliolitoidea is 139, of which 19 came from 9 outcrops and 120 from cores of 37 boreholes. The described samples represent 3 orders, 1 superfamily, 8 families, 2 subfamilies, 16 genera, 20 species (9 new), and 1 new subspecies. The authors consider that all the remains belong to fossil cnidarians. Fossil cnidarians are especially important from a facial point of view. The remains primarily indicate normal sea conditions in warm subtropical and tropical zones. In some cases, the identification of fossil cnidarians is easy, but usually we need to use the oriented thin sections. In the paper, only a small part of the collection is described following the system of Heliolitoidea developed by Olga Bondarenko. A studied collection is deposited in the Geological Department of the National Museum of Natural History, NAS of Ukraine under the number GD-1986.

Морфологічна диференціація Anura (Amphibia) у пізньому онтогенезі: аналіз популяцій Rana temporaria з регіону Карпат

The study is devoted to the morphological features of the common frog of the Carpathian region of Ukraine, namely the expression, directionality and structure of sexual differences of this species. The work uses data obtained as a result of the processing of the scientific collection of Rana temporaria (Linnaeus, 1758) from the territory of the Ukrainian Carpathians (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Zakarpattia oblasts), which is housed at the National Museum of Natural History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv). A total of 381 common frog specimens were studied—233 males (L = 24.6–84.5 mm) and 148 females (L = 23.2–94.2 mm). It is shown that individual differences in linear dimensions and body proportions in a sample of common frog males and females are structured and clearly reflect the morphological differentiation of individuals according to the age criterion. In the late ontogenesis of the common frog, generalised sex-related differences extend with the increasing age of individuals: in juveniles SqMD = 2.36, in subadults SqMD = 4.77, and in adults SqMD = 22.08. At the same time, not only does the expression of sex-related differences increase, but also their orientation changes significantly. According to our data, this year’s juveniles (juvenis) are individuals that did not winter at all (0+). At the same time, males are reliably (t = 4.50; p < 0.001) larger in body length (24.6–37.5 mm; Lmean = 29.87 mm) than females (23.2–32.7 mm; Lmean = 26.40 mm). But already in the group of semi-adult (subadultus) frogs, the orientation of sexual dimorphism in terms of body length changes completely—females are reliably larger than males, which is even more pronounced in adult, sexually mature individuals. Males of tailless amphibians grow and physiologically mature faster than females, so they begin to reproduce 1–2 years earlier. Females, which grow more slowly and mature later, join the reproduction having a larger size and older age. It is shown that sexual differences begin to form in the subadultus group. The generalised differences (SqMD) by sex are significantly smaller than by age. Adult sexually mature females compared to males are characterised by larger values of 18 body parameters, except for shoulder length (H.) and elbow joint diameter (Cr.a.c.), which are most reliably larger in males. These features of the proportions of the limbs provide the male with reliable holding of the female during mating (amplexus).

Dynamics of collection accumulation: estimation of research efforts on the example of the mammal fauna of Cherkasy oblast, Ukraine

The article deals with the dynamics of the amassment of natural history collections on the example of one of the regions of Ukraine, the fauna of which is under constant attention of researchers. This region is the Middle Dnipro Region, namely Cherkasy Oblast in general and Kaniv Nature Reserve in particular, which are the sites of long-term monitoring studies of fauna and bases for conducting field research and field practices of students. The dynamics of collections development is considered on the example of the collections of the National Museum of Natural History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The article shows the continuity of specimen income to the collections and, at the same time, significant changes in the dynamics of such income. Several indicators that can reflect the dynamics of research efforts are proposed. The decades (1900–1919, etc.) are chosen as time periods, and the variables are the total number of specimens per decade and the total number of families they represent. These indicators can be used to evaluate three dependent notions: in terms of fieldwork, the completeness of the captures (records); in terms of research history, the intensity of research; and in terms of museology, the abundance of collections. Among the indicators tested are the geometric mean (SQRT (Nfam × Nsp)), the quadratic mean (SQRT [(Nfam2 + Nsp2) / 2]) and the Simpson diversity index (1 / ∑ (pi)2). The first two indicators are highly dependent on sample sizes and therefore vary widely; and for this reason, the author recommends using with Simpson’s diversity index. It can be used to estimate the distribution of not only the number of specimens by family for each decade (essentially a comparison of family abundance), but also any other distributions, replacing families with genera or orders and changing the analysis periods depending on the amount of available data. The term ‘research effort’ can be used as a synonym for ‘collecting effort’, which can be found in the publications of English-speaking colleagues. The algorithm for assessing ‘research effort’ is an important tool in analysing the history of collections, levels of research on regions, and the history of research.

METAPOCYRTUS MADAYAW SP. N. (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE, ENTIMINAE), A NEW FLIGHTLESS WEEVIL FROM EASTERN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

The flightless weevil Metapocyrtus (Artapocyrtus) madayaw Cabras et Medina, sp. n. is described and illustrated from Davao Region in Mindanao Island, Philippines. Holotype and paratypes are deposited at the Philippine National Museum of Natural History (Manila, Philippines). Ecological notes on the new species are also provided.

Колекції Миколи Дюкова та Віктора Дребенцова у Національному науково-природничому музеї (Київ)

The history of collections that became part of the academic zoological collection prior to the Second World War and which is now being housed in the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), NAS of Ukraine was studied. The specimens in this collection had probably been kept in zoological centres of Kharkiv before. The collected specimens and their label data are considered as an important source for an entire series of reconstructions, such as the history of species, the history of research, the biographies of researchers, and the history of collections and museums. Along with bibliographic search and mentions of finds of species and their collectors, such data are promising for the reconstruction of important pages in the history of scientific research and scientific institutions. All such approaches were used to investigate the history of research related to the names of Mykola Diukov and Viktor Drebentsov (Drebentsiv) — two researchers who were not included in the list of the hundred most famous mammalogists of Ukraine (review of 2022), but turned out to be iconic persons. Their scientific careers turned out to be closely related to the Kharkiv plant protection centres, and both researchers carried out active research and collection work in the Kharkiv region and in a number of southern regions of Ukraine in the 1920s and early 1930s. The destinies of both of researchers took sharp turns during the period of Stalinist repressions in Ukraine (Union for the Freedom of Ukraine trial, Holodomor, political purges, etc.), and both left not only Kharkiv, but also Ukraine: Diukov ended up in Dagestan working in the plant protection system, whereas Drebentsov in Murmansk at the polar institute, and later in the regional museum of local history. In the new places, the researchers continued their zoological practices, collecting and organizing collections of vertebrate animals (mainly mammals and birds) and achieved a high level of recognition: Diukov became one of the key zoologists and nature popularisers in Dagestan, and so did Drebentsov in Murman. Their destinies turned out differently: M. Diukov was eventually repressed (spent five years in concentration camps) and went missing, whereas V. Drebentsov became a recipient of various state awards. The names of both researchers should be included in the registers of zoologists who formed the foundations of modern knowledge and collections. The authors associate the preservation and transfer of their collections with the activities of O. Myhulin, who in 1938 published the monograph “Mammals of the Ukrainian SSR”, which is largely based on the analysis of mammal collections.

Perspectives on the Grey Zone of Species Delimitation With Notes on Invertebrates in the Marine Environment

Defining species boundaries, or delimiting species, is a complex and often difficult task. Indeed, when such studies incorporate approaches that consider evolutionary mechanisms, there is much to be learned about species diversity and how the processes that play critical roles in speciation can impact species delineation. In 2021, a virtual workshop on species delimitation was held at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History to train natural history scientists and taxonomists on the appropriate analytical tools that can be used to help delimit species when using molecular data. This perspective highlights some of the main themes discussed during that workshop while detailing three processes that can challenge any species delimitation study. Specifically, we discuss incomplete lineage sorting, gene flow, and population structure when delimiting species boundaries using molecular data. We highlight empirical studies and methodological approaches that have successfully met these challenges under various scenarios. Finally, we provide recommendations and considerations for undertaking species delimitation studies in a variety of taxa. To this end, we recommend that taxonomists fully embrace process-based species delimitation, which can provide important insights into speciation in their study systems. For those developing analytical approaches, we hope they consider incorporating less well-known taxa, such as marine invertebrates, into method testing. Marine invertebrates encompass many dark taxa across the tree of life yet represent the majority of animal phyla, many of which are vulnerable to extinction due to global ocean change. Thus, advancing species delimitation to address taxonomic revisions in these organisms will support conservation decisions on keystone ecosystems. Furthermore, the diversity of their life history strategies, the lack of obvious barriers to gene flow in the ocean environment, and their occurrence in isolated habitat patches can better inform our knowledge of speciation and the evolutionary processes that play a role in generating diversity in nature.

Psyllids (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) in the entomological collection of the National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The entomological collection of the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia (NMNHS) preserves a total of 89 specimens representing 25 species of jumping plant lice (Hemiptera: Psylloidea). These were recorded and digitised in the Specify platform as part of the Distributed System of Scientific Collections project (DissCo-BG). This paper summarises all available data on these specimens. Twenty-four species were collected in Bulgaria, one species in Greece. Voucher specimens for Psylloidea published in a historical treatise on the Bulgarian fauna of Hemiptera by Dimitar Joakimov were not found in the NMNHS and are most likely lost. However, Joakimov’s collection, later acquired and supplemented by the museum, contains unpublished material, including three species reported here for the first time from Bulgaria: Aphalara maculipennis Löw, 1886, Cacopsylla ulmi (Foerster, 1848) and Dyspersa abdominalis (Flor, 1861).

Mass extinctions, their causes and consequences: an interview with Douglas H. Erwin and Shuzhong Shen.

'Mass extinctions' have been a hot topic for several decades. What triggers a mass extinction? How does a mass extinction impact the evolution of life? How does our ecosystem recover after a mass extinction? These questions attracted the interest of both scientists and the public alike. NSR spoke to two renowned researchers in the field of mass extinctions: Prof. Douglas H. Erwin from the National Museum of Natural History of the USA, and Prof. Shuzhong Shen from Nanjing University, China. Prof. Erwin has been interested in the end-Permian mass extinction since graduate school. He has worked on a variety of problems, from Permian gastropod systematics to the origin of animals. Currently his work focuses on the nature of evolutionary novelty and innovation. Prof. Shen's research career is centered upon the end-Permian mass extinction, Permian stratigraphy and global correlations, with taxonomic expertise on brachiopods and conodonts. The International Commission on Stratigraphy recognizes his outstanding singular contribution to stratigraphy and awarded him the ICS Stratigraphy Medal in 2019.

New Records for the Liverwort and Hornwort Flora of Vietnam 2. Bazzania Gray and Some Other Collections of Pierre Tixier in the National Museum of Natural History, France

New Records for the Liverwort and Hornwort Flora of Vietnam 2. Bazzania Gray and Some Other Collections of Pierre Tixier in the National Museum of Natural History, France

Application of Fuzzy Measures to Move Towards Cyber-Taxonomy

The species inventory of global biodiversity is constantly revised and refined by taxonomic research, through the addition of newly discovered species and the reclassification of known species. This almost three-century-old project provides essential knowledge for humankind. In particular, knowledge of biodiversity establishes a foundation for developing appropriate conservation strategies. An accurate global inventory of species relies on the study of millions of specimens housed all around the world in natural history collections. For the last two decades, biological taxonomy has generated an increasing amount of data every year, and notably through the digitization of collection specimens, has gradually been transformed into a big data science. In recognition of this trend, the French National Museum of Natural History has embarked on a major research and engineering challenge within its information system: the adoption of cyber-taxonomic practices that require easy access to data on specimens housed in natural history collections all over the world. To this end, an important step is to automatically complete and reconcile the heterogeneous classification data usually associated with specimens managed in different collection databases. We describe here a new fuzzy approach to reconciling the classifications in multiple databases, enabling more accurate taxonomic retrieval of specimen data across databases.

Leveraging Multimodality for Biodiversity Data: Exploring joint representations of species descriptions and specimen images using CLIP

In recent years, the field of biodiversity data analysis has witnessed significant advancements, with a number of models emerging to process and extract valuable insights from various data sources. One notable area of progress lies in the analysis of species descriptions, where structured knowledge extraction techniques have gained prominence. These techniques aim to automatically extract relevant information from unstructured text, such as taxonomic classifications and morphological traits. (Sahraoui et al. 2022, Sahraoui et al. 2023) By applying natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning methods, structured knowledge extraction enables the conversion of textual species descriptions into a structured format, facilitating easier integration, searchability, and analysis of biodiversity data. Furthermore, object detection on specimen images has emerged as a powerful tool in biodiversity research. By leveraging computer vision algorithms (Triki et al. 2020, Triki et al. 2021,Ott et al. 2020), researchers can automatically identify and classify objects of interest within specimen images, such as organs, anatomical features, or specific taxa. Object detection techniques allow for the efficient and accurate extraction of valuable information, contributing to tasks like species identification, morphological trait analysis, and biodiversity monitoring. These advancements have been particularly significant in the context of herbarium collections and digitization efforts, where large volumes of specimen images need to be processed and analyzed. On the other hand, multimodal learning, an emerging field in artificial intelligence (AI), focuses on developing models that can effectively process and learn from multiple modalities, such as text and images (Li et al. 2020, Li et al. 2021, Li et al. 2019, Radford et al. 2021, Sun et al. 2021, Chen et al. 2022). By incorporating information from different modalities, multimodal learning aims to capture the rich and complementary characteristics present in diverse data sources. This approach enables the model to leverage the strengths of each modality, leading to enhanced understanding, improved performance, and more comprehensive representations. Structured knowledge extraction from species descriptions and object detection on specimen images synergistically enhances biodiversity data analysis. This integration leverages textual and visual data strengths, gaining deeper insights. Extracted structured information from descriptions improves search, classification, and correlation of biodiversity data. Object detection enriches textual descriptions, providing visual evidence for the verification and validation of species characteristics. To tackle the challenges posed by the massive volume of specimen images available at the Herbarium of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, we have chosen to implement the CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining) model (Radford et al. 2021) developed by OpenAI. CLIP utilizes a contrastive learning framework to recognize joint representations of text and images. The model is trained on a large-scale dataset consisting of text-image pairs from the internet, enabling it to understand the semantic relationships between textual descriptions and visual content. Fine-tuning the CLIP model on our dataset of species descriptions and specimen images is crucial for adapting it to our domain. By exposing the model to our data, we enhance its ability to understand and represent biodiversity characteristics. This involves training the model on our labeled dataset, allowing it to refine its knowledge and adapt to biodiversity patterns. Using the fine-tuned CLIP model, we aim to develop an efficient search engine for the Herbarium's vast biodiversity collection. Users can query the engine with morphological keywords, and it will match textual descriptions with specimen images to provide relevant results. This research aligns with the current AI trajectory for biodiversity data, paving the way for innovative approaches to address conservation and understanding of our planet's biodiversity.