Natural History Collections Research Articles

A price tag on species

Species have intrinsic value but also partake in a long range of ecosystem services of major economic value to humans. These values have proved hard to quantify precisely, making it all too easy to dismiss them altogether. We outline the concept of the species stock market (SSM), a system to provide a unified basis for valuation of all living species. The SSM amalgamates digitized information from natural history collections, occurrence data, and molecular sequence databases to quantify our knowledge of each species from scientific, societal, and economic points of view. The conceptual trading system will necessarily be very unlike that of the regular stock market, but the looming biodiversity crisis implores us to finally put an open and transparent price tag on symbiosis, deforestation, and pollution

Challenging ecogeographical rules: Phenotypic variation in the Mountain Treeshrew (Tupaia montana) along tropical elevational gradients.

Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules were defined to describe macroecological patterns across latitudinal gradients. Bergmann observed a positive association between body size and latitude for endothermic species while Allen described shorter appendages as latitude increases. Almost two centuries later, there is still ongoing discussion about these patterns. Temperature, the common variable in these two rules, varies predictably across both latitude and elevation. Although these rules have been assessed extensively in mammals across latitude, particularly in regions with strong seasonality, studies on tropical montane mammals are scarce. We here test for these patterns and assess the variation of several other locomotory, diet-associated, body condition, and thermoregulatory traits across elevation in the Mountain Treeshrew (Tupaia montana) on tropical mountains in Borneo. Based on morphological measurements from both the field and scientific collections, we found a complex pattern: Bergmann’s rule was not supported in our tropical mountain system, since skull length, body size, and weight decreased from the lowest elevations (<1000 m) to middle elevations (2000–2500 m), and then increased from middle elevations to highest elevations. Allen’s rule was supported for relative tail length, which decreased with elevation, but not for ear and hindfoot length, with the former remaining constant and the latter increasing with elevation. This evidence together with changes in presumed diet-related traits (rostrum length, zygomatic breadth and upper tooth row length) along elevation suggest that selective pressures other than temperature, are playing a more important role shaping the morphological variation across the distribution of the Mountain Treeshrew. Diet, food acquisition, predation pressure, and/or intra- and inter-specific competition, are some of the potential factors driving the phenotypic variation of this study system. The lack of variation in body condition might suggest local adaptation of this species across its elevational range, perhaps due to generalist foraging strategies. Finally, a highly significant temporal effect was detected in several traits but not in others, representing the first phenotypic variation temporal trends described on treeshrews.

Simultaneous Barcode Sequencing of Diverse Museum Collection Specimens Using a Mixed RNA Bait Set

A growing number of publications presenting results from sequencing natural history collection specimens reflect the importance of DNA sequence information from such samples. Ancient DNA extraction and library preparation methods in combination with target gene capture are a way of unlocking archival DNA, including from formalin-fixed wet-collection material. Here we report on an experiment, in which we used an RNA bait set containing baits from a wide taxonomic range of species for DNA hybridisation capture of nuclear and mitochondrial targets for analysing natural history collection specimens. The bait set used consists of 2,492 mitochondrial and 530 nuclear RNA baits and comprises specific barcode loci of diverse animal groups including both invertebrates and vertebrates. The baits allowed to capture DNA sequence information of target barcode loci from 84% of the 37 samples tested, with nuclear markers being captured more frequently and consensus sequences of these being more complete compared to mitochondrial markers. Samples from dry material had a higher rate of success than wet-collection specimens, although target sequence information could be captured from 50% of formalin-fixed samples. Our study illustrates how efforts to obtain barcode sequence information from natural history collection specimens may be combined and are a way of implementing barcoding inventories of scientific collection material.

Community Science Success for Herbarium Transcription in Arkansas: Building a Network of Students and Volunteers for Notes from Nature

An estimated 390 million herbarium specimens worldwide provide data for scientific study, but specimen labels must be transcribed into standardized databases to be readily useable by the scientific community. Yet, data entry cannot be completed with current staffing and funding. Notes from Nature provides an infrastructure for community science transcription of natural history specimen labels with tutorials and a platform for communication among community scientists and researchers. The Plants of Arkansas project, now led by the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, built an active transcription community by coordinating local universities, recruiting service organizations, and engaging worldwide users online. Training members of service organizations creates continuing users dedicated to the project, and students learn about natural history collections and community science through real-world assignments. Our goals are to: 1) enumerate participants and transcription of the first 3.5 years of the project, 2) describe in-person events for recruitment, training, and connection with local collections, and 3) propose recommendations based on the evidence that increased engagement results in increased rates of contribution. The distribution of transcriptions per user compares to other community science projects, with a few individuals who transcribe thousands of labels. However, we have had more users that contribute >50 transcriptions in the Plants of Arkansas project. With our project's success, we offer suggestions to manage a transcription community and advance the rate of specimen digitization worldwide.

Muzea uczelniane i kolekcje – cele, założenia, przykłady

University museums and collections – aims, assumptions, examples The aim of this article is to introduce the activities of museums and collections located in the structure of Polish higher education institutions. The analysis is based on concrete examples of academic units operating today. The authors distinguish several categories of museums according to their location, among them university and departmental museums. The second criterion is the organisational formula, in which the authors indicate, apart from museums, also centres and history interpretation units. Using archaeological, medical and natural history collections as examples, they describe similarities and differences in the way they work with resources. The article is also an attempt to start a discourse aimed at drawing attention to the potential lying in such units, the mission and duty of which is to preserve, secure, develop and make available for scientific and didactic purposes the heritage of the university and the history of science. The authors also refer to the legal situation of the university museum units and regulations, which the organisers may use when creating and conducting activities related to the collection and processing of tangible and intangible academic heritage, which is part of the world’s scientific heritage.

Catalogue of primary types of Neotropical Myotis (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae).

Myotis comprises a diverse group of vespertilionid bats with worldwide distribution. Neotropical Myotis have an accentuated phenotypic conservatism, which makes species delimitation and identification difficult, hindering our understanding of the diversity, distribution, and phylogenetic relationships of taxa. To encourage new systematic reviews of the genus, a catalogue of the primary types and names is presented, current and in synonymy, for Neotropical Myotis. Currently 33 valid species (and three subspecies) are recognized, and their primary types are deposited in 12 scientific collections in the USA (30 types), Brazil (two types), England (two types), and France (one type). The names of 29 Neotropical Myotis species currently in synonymy were found. However, it is possible that some synonyms represent independent evolutionary lineages, considering recent results provided by taxonomic revisions.

Uncertainty matters: ascertaining where specimens in natural history collections come from and its implications for predicting species distributions

Natural history collections (NHCs) represent an enormous and largely untapped wealth of information on the Earth's biota, made available through GBIF as digital preserved specimen records. Precise knowledge of where the specimens were collected is paramount to rigorous ecological studies, especially in the field of species distribution modelling. Here, we present a first comprehensive analysis of georeferencing quality for all preserved specimen records served by GBIF, and illustrate the impact that coordinate uncertainty may have on predicted potential distributions. We used all GBIF preserved specimen records to analyse the availability of coordinates and associated spatial uncertainty across geography, spatial resolution, taxonomy, publishing institutions and collection time. We used three plant species across their native ranges in different parts of the world to show the impact of uncertainty on predicted potential distributions. We found that 38% of the 180+ million records provide coordinates only and 18% coordinates and uncertainty. Georeferencing quality is determined more by country of collection and publishing than by taxonomic group. Distinct georeferencing practices are more determinant than implicit characteristics and georeferencing difficulty of specimens. Availability and quality of records contrasts across world regions. Uncertainty values are not normally distributed but peak at very distinct values, which can be traced back to specific regions of the world. Uncertainty leads to a wide spectrum of range sizes when modelling species distributions, potentially affecting conclusions in biogeographical and climate change studies. In summary, the digitised fraction of the world's NHCs are far from optimal in terms of georeferencing and quality mainly depends on where the collections are hosted. A collective effort between communities around NHC institutions, ecological research and data infrastructure is needed to bring the data on a par with its importance and relevance for ecological research.

БАШКИРСКАЯ ФОЛЬКЛОРИСТИКА: ИСТОРИЯ И СОВРЕМЕННОСТЬ

The article presents a brief history of the department of folklore and art, which began its activities in 1922 under the Society for the Study of Life, Culture and History of Bashkiria under the NK of Education, which today is an independent subdivision of the institute, and folklore is a successfully developing area of Bashkir philological science. It is noted that from the first days of the existence of the department, the active collection of folklore went in parallel with its study, and the formation of Bashkir folklore as a science took place after the creation of the Bashkir branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1951). Second half of the 20th century characterized by the appearance of the first academic works as "Bashkir Folk Art" in three volumes, the first monographs. The most fruitful period of field research is shown in 1959-1964, when folklore expeditions led by A.N. Kireev to the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Orenburg, Samara, Saratov regions and the Perm Territory, during which rich material was collected on the oral work of the Bashkirs, including the main body of the preserved priceless epic heritage of the people. The article also shows the contribution of predecessors to the creation of a rich national folklore heritage, as evidenced by the multi-volume scientific collection "Bashkir Folk Art" in the Bashkir and Russian languages, it is said about the field research of modern folklorists, their collections of expeditionary materials, contributing to the gradual replenishment of the source base of Bashkir folklore. only by identifying the works of traditional folklore that continue to exist, but also modern examples of folk art: takmaks, baits, less often proverbs and sayings. Further, it is emphasized that during the existence of the Department of Folklore and Art, monographs have been published in almost all genres of folk art, and new results of scientific research by the staff of the department are reflected in collections of scientific articles «Bashkir Folklore: Research and Materials» published periodically since 1986 (7 issues ); works of oral folk art have been translated into Russian and English, which made it possible to introduce them into international scientific circulation. It is also noted that projects on grants are regularly carried out in the department, employees actively popularize Bashkir folklore both from the stands of various scientific forums and through the media.

OPEN SCIENCE IN UNIVERSITIES: GOALS AND BENEFITS

Open science, based on high standards of transparency, cooperation and communication, is a priority for the development of research policy in the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The purpose of the article is to analyse the essence of Open Science, its goals and benefits, as well as the necessary changes for large-scale implementation of Open Science policy in universities. Methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison, systematization of scientific works of foreign and domestic scientists and documents of EHEA and ERA are used. Open science is seen as a new approach to the scientific process based on collaboration and new ways of disseminating knowledge through digital technologies and new tools for collaboration. The main goal of Open Science is to improve the exchange, transfer and access to scientific knowledge. The advantages of Open Science are defined as follows: increasing the efficiency of science by reducing duplication and costs of creating, transmitting and reusing data; increasing transparency and quality in the process of confirming the reliability of research results; accelerating the transfer of knowledge, promoting a faster transition from research to innovation; increasing the impact of research results on the economy; a more effective response to global challenges that require coordinated international action; promoting the involvement of citizens in research, active participation in scientific experiments and data collection. It is concluded that Open Science, by maximizing the benefits of the free movement of knowledge, provides a movement towards the fifth freedom in Europe (along with the freedom to move goods, services, persons and capital). The transition to large-scale implementation of Open Science practice in universities requires changes that cover a wide range of academic activities at the institutional level and include: promoting increased knowledge transfer and cooperation between the academic and non-academic sectors; focus on knowledge transfer in the context of digitalization; optimizing the role of universities in research infrastructures.

Colonial Legacies Influence Biodiversity Lessons: How Past Trade Routes and Power Dynamics Shape Present-Day Scientific Research and Professional Opportunities for Caribbean Scientists.

AbstractScientists recognize the Caribbean archipelago as a biodiversity hotspot and employ it for their research as a natural laboratory. Yet they do not always appreciate that these ecosystems are in fact palimpsests shaped by multiple human cultures over millennia. Although post-European anthropogenic impacts are well documented, human influx into the region began about 5,000 years prior. Thus, inferences of ecological and evolutionary processes within the Caribbean may in fact represent artifacts of an unrecognized human legacy linked to issues influenced by centuries of colonial rule. The threats posed by stochastic natural and anthropogenically influenced disasters demand that we have an understanding of the natural history of endemic species if we are to halt extinctions and maintain access to traditional livelihoods. However, systematic issues have significantly biased our biological knowledge of the Caribbean. We discuss two case studies of the Caribbean's fragmented natural history collections and the effects of differing governance by the region's multiple nation states. We identify knowledge gaps and highlight a dire need for integrated and accessible inventorying of the Caribbean's collections. Research emphasizing local and international collaboration can lead to positive steps forward and will ultimately help us more accurately study Caribbean biodiversity and the ecological and evolutionary processes that generated it.

Body shape and diet reflect arboreality degree of five congeneric snakes sympatric in the Atlantic forest

AbstractThe substrate use by animals may influence both their morphology and diet. Species of the genus Chironius are among the most conspicuous frog‐eating, arboreal snakes in South America. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether diet and morphology relate to substrate use in five sympatric Chironius species from the Atlantic Forest. Our hypothesis is that habitat pressure is strong enough so that even closely related species will present differences. We collected morphological and diet data from specimens of C. bicarinatus, C. exoletus, C. foveatus, C. fuscus, and C. laevicollis housed in scientific collections. Information on habitat use were obtained by monitoring free‐ranging animals using thread‐bobbins and also from the literature. Our results demonstrate that C. foveatus is the most arboreal species, and C. laevicollis is the most terrestrial among the five studied species. Chironius foveatus is the slenderest, with one of the longest relative tail lengths, the narrowest ventral scales, the highest vertebral density, the largest eye diameter, green body color, and diet based on tree frogs (Hylidae). These traits indicate a higher arboreality for this species. On the other extreme, C. laevicollis is the stoutest species, and has the shortest tail, the largest head, the lowest vertebral density, and diet based on ground‐living frogs (Leptodactylidae). These traits indicate pronounced terrestriality for this species. The other three species have traits intermediate between the extremes showed by C. foveatus and C. laevicollis. We found evidence for a close relationship between arboreality or terrestriality, morphology, and diet.

Natural history collections reveal species richness on a small isolated tropical island: the bats of Siberut

AbstractThe paucity of biodiversity assessments in the Palaeotropics has constrained recommendations for tropical forest conservation in areas such as Siberut, one of the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia known for its high endemicity. Taking advantage of information from museum collections amassed from the Indo-Malaya archipelago from the early 20th century onwards, we show how species records available through online databases of natural history collections can be used to assess the state of biodiversity when used in conjunction with a field survey, using bat species on Siberut as a study case. We obtained a total of 15 years of records from 1903 to 2013 (following searches of databases up to 2020), documenting 20 bat species on Siberut. Of these, our field survey contributed records of three additional species not previously recorded on the island. The species accumulation curve has not levelled off, suggesting that future surveys may discover additional bat species and highlighting Siberut's importance as bat habitat and source of tropical biodiversity.

Batch-Mask: Automated Image Segmentation for Organisms with Limbless or Non-Standard Body Forms.

Efficient comparisons of biological color patterns are critical for understanding the mechanisms by which organisms evolve in nature, including sexual selection, predator-prey interactions, and thermoregulation. However, limbless, elongate, or spiral-shaped organisms do not conform to the standard orientation and photographic techniques required for many automated analyses. Currently, large-scale color analysis of elongate animals requires time-consuming manual landmarking, which reduces their representation in coloration research despite their ecological importance. We present Batch-Mask: an automated, customizable workflow to automatically analyze large photographic datasets to isolate non-standard biological organisms from the background. Batch-Maskis completely open-source and does not depend on any proprietary software. We also present a user guide for fine-tuning weights to a custom dataset and incorporating existing manual visual analysis tools (e.g., micaToolbox) into a single automated workflow for comparing color patterns across images. Batch-Maskwas 60x faster than manual landmarking and produced masks that correctly identified 96% of all snake pixels. To validate our approach, we used micaToolbox to compare pattern energy in a sample set of snake photographs segmented by Batch-Maskand humans and found no significant difference in the output results. The fine-tuned weights, user guide, and automated workflow substantially decrease the amount of time and attention required to quantitatively analyze non-standard biological subjects. With these tools, biologists can compare color, pattern, and shape differences in large datasets that include significant morphological variation in elongate body forms. This advance is especially valuable for comparative analyses of natural history collections across a broad range of morphologies. Through landmark-free automation, Batch-Maskcan greatly expand the scale of space, time, or taxonomic breadth across which color variation can be quantitatively examined.

Novos registros e checklist das espécies de Thysanoptera do Pampa Brasileiro

We present here the first checklist of the thrips of the Brazilian Pampa, which is a grassland region with sparse shrub and tree formations. This work involved observations of specimens deposited in scientific collections and surveys carried out in South Brazil in the last two decades. We listed 128 named species of Thysanoptera from the Pampa, with six new records from Brazil: Allothrips megacephalus megacephalus Hood, 1908; Aneristothrips rostratus De Santis, 1957; Compsothrips hoodi (De Santis, 1958); Holopothrips urinator De Santis, 1957; Rhinoceps jansei Faure, 1949 and Treherniella atrata De Santis, 1963.

Long-term archival of environmental samples empowers biodiversity monitoring and ecological research

Human-induced biodiversity loss and changes in community composition are major challenges of the present time, urgently calling for comprehensive biomonitoring approaches to understand system dynamics and to inform policy-making. In this regard, molecular methods are increasingly applied. They provide tools for fast and high-resolution biodiversity assessments and can also focus on population dynamics or functional diversity. If samples are stored under appropriate conditions, this will enable the analysis of DNA, but also RNA and proteins from tissue or from non-biological substrates such as soil, water, or sediments, so-called environmental DNA (eDNA) or eRNA. Until now, most biodiversity studies using molecular methods rely on recent sampling events, although the benefit of analyzing long-time series is obvious. In this context Environmental Specimen Banks (ESBs) can play a crucial role, supplying diverse and well-documented samples collected in periodically repeated sampling events, and following standardized protocols. Mainly assembled for integrative monitoring of chemical compounds, ESB collections are largely accessible to third parties and can in principle be used for molecular analysis. While ESBs hold great potential for the standardized long-time storage of environmental samples, the cooperation with Biodiversity Biobanks as scientific collections guarantees the long-time storage of nucleotide (DNA, RNA) extracts together with links to analytical results and metadata. The present contribution aims to raise the awareness of the biodiversity research community regarding the high-quality samples accessible through ESBs, encourages ESBs to collect and store samples in DNA-friendly ways, and points out the high potential of combining DNA-based approaches with monitoring chemicals and other environmental stressors.

Lessons From a Museum's Cabinet: DNA Barcoding and Collections-Based Life Stage Associations Reveals a Hidden Diversity in the Puerto Rican Bank Paedomorphic Lycidae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea: Leptolycini)

Abstract The Leptolycini are a group of Lycidae endemic to the West Indies. Leptolycini adult females have been hypothesized to be extreme paedomorphic (i.e., larviform), however, females and larvae of the group are currently unknown. Here we provide the first association of adult male and immature life stages from the Puerto Rico using DNA barcoding, also collections-based associations and descriptions of immature Leptolycini and the first description of a paedomorphic female from the Virgin Islands. To carry out these life-stage associations we prepared an in-depth review of the Leptolycini fauna of the Puerto Rican bank (Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands). Several new taxa and taxonomic arrangements are proposed: Cessator crypticusnew species, Cessator tortolensisnew species, Cessator obrienorumnew species; Dracolycus chupacabranew genus and species, Dracolycus marshallinew species; Leptolycus falsoheterocornisnew species, and Leptolycus viensisnew species. Nanolycus gnomus Kazantsev is moved to Cessator gnomus (Kazantsev) new combination, rendering Nanolycus Kazantsev a new junior synonym of Cessator Kazantsev. The subgenus Baholycus Bocak is a new junior synonym of Leptolycus Leng and Mutchler. Leptolycus heterocornis var. flavicollis Leng and Mutchler is elevated to Leptolycus flavicollis Leng and Mutchler new status; Leptolycus (Leptolycus) albicauda Kazantsev is a new junior synonym of Leptolycus flavicollis Leng and Mutchler. An updated key to the adults and immature forms of Leptolycini from the Puerto Rican bank and a discussion on the importance of scientific collections in biodiversity studies is also provided.

Natural history collections: collaborative opportunities and important sources of information about helminth biodiversity in New Zealand

ABSTRACT Only a small fraction of the Earth’s total biodiversity has been described. This is particularly true of parasitic fauna, due to the paucity of taxonomic expertise, funding, and interest in parasites. It is expected that co-extinctions will become the main cause of species loss with potentially half of the parasite species becoming extinct prior to their discovery. This article addresses this issue and highlights case studies from the Otago Museum (OMNZ) (Dunedin, New Zealand), providing examples of successful collaborations between government organisations, museums, and parasitologists in bridging knowledge gaps in parasite diversity. The case studies presented focus on the parasitic helminths from opportunistic necropsies of stranded marine mammals and deceased birds. Collections from these case studies have doubled the size of the parasite collection at the OM, making this institution the most important repository of parasitic helminths in the country. We encourage such collaborations between museums, governing bodies, indigenous communities, ecologists and parasitologists in enhancing our knowledge of parasite diversity. Furthermore, we urge scientists to deposit both host and parasite tissues from surveys, vouchers, along with their respective metadata so that samples can be adequately stored and curated, thus ensuring that parasite collections become a legacy for future generations of scientists.

Threatened and extinct amphibians and reptiles in Italian natural history collections are useful conservation tools

Natural history museums are irreplaceable tools to study and preserve the biological diversity around the globe and among the primary actors in the recognition of species and the logical repositories for their type specimens. In this paper we surveyed the consistency of the preserved specimens of amphibians and reptiles housed in the major Italian scientific collections, and verified the presence of threatened species according to the IUCN Red List, including the Extinct (EX), Extinct in the Wild (EW), Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), and Vulnerable (VU) categories. Altogether, we analyzed 39 Italian zoological collections. We confirmed the presence of one extinct reptile (Chioninia coctei) and five extinct or extinct in the wild amphibian species (Atelopus longirostris, Nectophrynoides asperginis, Pseudophilautus leucorhinus, P. nasutus, and P. variabilis). Seven CR amphibians, fourteen CR reptile species and the extinct skink C. coctei are shared by more than one institution. Museums which host the highest number of threatened and extinct amphibian species are respectively Turin (17 CR and 1 EX), Florence (13 CR and 1 EX), and Trento (15 CR and 1 EW), while for reptiles the richest museums are those from Genoa (15 CR and 1 EX), Florence (11 CR and 1 EX), and Pisa (7 CR). Finally, we discussed the utility of natural history museums and the strategies to follow for the implementation of their functionality.

The educational value, both past and present, of an ancient scientific collection: the collection of anatomical preparations illustrating the various phases of bone development, from the second month of intrauterine life to adulthood

Italy’s museums possess an enormous patrimony of historical scientific artefacts. This raises important questions regarding the conservation and safeguard of such materials and prompts reflection as to the utility of current modalities of popularising science. The collections housed in scientific museums were created in order to promote scientific education by making science more accessible and more comprehensible. The authors ask whether this heritage can still be used for educational purposes today, and examine a collection of preparations on the ossification of human bones in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Siena. They conclude that such materials can still be of educational value if they are made part of exhibitions that meet the needs of the public and of students in training. Indeed, it is essential to bear witness to the long pathway of the development of scientific knowledge and, in particular, to the value of the research on which this knowledge is based. Through the implementation of ad hoc exhibitions, this precious historical scientific patrimony can continue to play an important role in presenting medical/healthcare issues of topical interest without losing sight of the relevance of past experience to basic teaching.

Ali-Bey - an open collaborative georeferencing web application.

Georeferencing preserved specimens represents a major effort at the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB), given the available resources and limited staff that can be allocated to the task. Georeferencing is a labour-intensive and hard-to-automate task that requires software tools that can help in making it as efficient as possible. The tool we present, Ali-Bey, has been slowly developed over 15 years and its functionalities have been gradually built in a process of development, testing, use in production and refinement, rather than as a single development cycle out of a comprehensive specifications requirement document. At the start, the MCNB could not find a tool that fully satisfied the requirements listed as essential and made the decision to develop a custom tool. At the end, the initiative has proved successful since it has delivered a new georeferencing tool that meets the MCNB's needs, all in a context of yearly scarce availability of funds. The tool has been gradually matured and developed over the years, in line with the scarce financing. Only recently, after reaching a notable set of novel features, we considered to release it as an open-source project. The MCNB has supported its development up until this date and decided to open it in order to give the NHC community the opportunity to contribute to its development. We present the software tool Ali-Bey that provides new functionality for the georeferencing of specimens in Natural History Collections, namely the possibility of cooperation between different institutions, the traceability of georeferences and the capability of managing different versions of a same site name, namely for historical reasons. The tool is an open-source web application implemented in Python and the Django framework that leverages other commonly-used specialised geodatabase and map server tools. An API provides access to the geodatabase to externally-developed tools. In addition, for an easy installation, the tool is provided as a multi-container Docker application.