National Museum Research Articles

On the Importance of Contextualizing an Educational Escape Room Activity

This paper describes the design and evaluation of "Enigma Bio", an educational escape room activity that aims to convey the abstract concept of biodiversity to children between 11 and 13 years of age, making them aware of the importance of climate change and its impact on biodiversity. The design of Enigma Bio is closely linked to the Biodiversity exhibition at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, designed for a visit in groups of between 20 and 30 children, with an approximate duration of one hour, running on mobile devices and including augmented reality technology. The purpose of this research is to determine whether, in the case of educational escape room activities in museums with a limited time duration, it is more effective to have a pre-session introducing the topic. Our hypothesis is that without the context of the pre-explanation, the playful component of the game may be too powerful and may cause children not to pay enough attention to the message that the game intends to communicate, and even more so when dealing with a complex message such as the effect of climate change on biodiversity. To answer this research question, we follow an A/B testing experimental design involving two groups of children, one of which received an introductory talk on biodiversity and climate change before going to the museum and the other did not. The experimental design is completed with a pre-post evaluation of the children's environmental awareness by means of a previously validated questionnaire. The results of the experiment provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the pre-session introduction in enhancing the learning outcomes of short educational escape room activities. Significant differences were observed between pre- and post-activity tests, indicating a moderate overall increase in awareness scores within both individual groups (A and B) as well as across the combined results. The findings suggest that the pre-session introduction indeed plays a role in enhancing students' awareness of the targeted message. These results represent a breakthrough in the e-learning practice that will be of value to other designers of educational escape rooms with a limited time duration.

Preservation of Natural History and Biodiversity of Bangladesh: Effort of Bangladesh National Museum

The study of nature has likely been one of humanity’s earliest pursuits, considering that a natural inclination for humans, even in a primitive state, is to pay attention to the environment, appreciating the flora, fauna, and the earth beneath their feet. This study aims to assess the role and contributions of the Department of National History of Bangladesh National Museum in preserving the natural history, heritage and biodiversity of Bangladesh through analysis of gathered exhibits, specimens, and input from diverse sources, including general visitors, field experts, and researchers. Additionally, this research seeks to identify potential avenues of future growth and development within the department. The Natural History department has meticulously gathered a treasure trove of ancient animals, plants, and geological fossils, butterflies, live snakes, snails, and oysters. The scope of Bangladesh’s biodiversity and natural history is far too broad to be fully represented within limited galleries. As such, it is imperative to consider establishing a separate Natural History Museum. Additional recommendations from the participants include creating a separate herb gallery consisting of diverse collection of medicinal herbs and other plants for greater conservation of plant species. The usage of diorama and semi-dioramas in representing the biodiversity of Bangladesh is not only very appealing to the visitors but also expressive of the natural habitats of the wildlife. As such, modernizing the other galleries and incorporating dioramas as medium of display might be taken into consideration. There have been calls from the participants to incorporate modern technology, in particular 3D visuals.

Analyzing the Effects of Monochromatic Lights on the Fungal Growth to Control the Progression of Microbial Deterioration on Animal Collections Preserved in the Zoological Museum of Naples, Italy

ABSTRACT Exposing artworks and artifacts in museums is fundamental to disseminate culture and knowledge but is also risky since the exposure to environmental conditions can deteriorate exhibited objects. Light is crucial, being able to trigger photochemical effects, and jointly responsible (with temperature and humidity) for biological risk generation. In this context, fungal growth in museum artifacts is a damaging factor that should not be underestimated. Consequently, the study of lighting effects on fungi development is essential. In this work, five different fungal strains (Aspergillus fumigatus, Bjerkandera adusta, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium chrysogenum, and Penicillium granulatum) isolated from samplings on animal exhibits hosted in the Zoological Museum of Naples, Italy, are cultivated inside four experimental boxes, equipped with monochromatic LEDs with different peak wavelengths (460 nm, 518 nm, 594 nm, and 638 nm). The growth rate, the protein and carbohydrate contents are analyzed and compared to results obtained in darkness (typical growth conditions for studies about fungi). Results demonstrate that, even if fungi are heterotrophic organisms and do not need light to grow and develop, their growth rate, and their protein and carbohydrate contents are affected by the exposure to monochromatic radiation, but the spectral sensitivity strictly depends on the analyzed species. For this reason, it is not possible to infer general practical guidelines for lighting applications, and it becomes urgent to establish accurate and shared analysis protocols to be applied case by case, to study the effects of the environmental conditions on microorganisms and drive-specific design choices.

Species of the Genus Paroniella Fuhrmann, 1920 (Cestoda: Davaineidae) from Bulbuls (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae): Redescription of P. perreti (Mahon, 1954) and Description of P. neolestes n. sp. from Africa.

The purpose of the present study is to contribute to the knowledge on the diversity of cestodes of the genus Paroniella Fuhrmann, 1920 parasitising passerine birds of the family Pycnonotidae (bulbuls) in the Afrotropical Region. The only known species of this groups, Paroniella perreti (Mahon, 1954) from Pycnonotus tricolor (Hartlaub) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is poorly described. Therefore, it needed a detailed redescription in order to make a reliable comparison and provide differentiation among this species and newly-collected davaineid specimens. Based on new materials collected from Neolestes torquatus Cabanis in Gabon, Paroniella neolestes n. sp. is described. The type series of P. perreti from the collection of the Natural History Museum of Geneva is redescribed and figured using conventional light microscopy and interference-contrast microscopy. The specimens of the new species were stained by iron acetocarmine and mounted in Canada balsam. The present study provided more detailed and accurate data on P. perreti (compared to its original description) in relation mostly to the armament of suckers (not mentioned in the original description), the structure of the copulative apparatus, the number of rostellar hooks and the number of testes. The morphological comparison of the specimens from Neolestes torquatus from Gabon with the known 53 species of the genus Paroniella (presented in a table format) characterised them as belonging to a new species. The new combination Paroniella oitaensis (Kugi, 1990) n. comb. was proposed. Based on the present state of knowledge, P. perreti and P. neolestes seem to be specific each to a single host species, i.e. Pycnonotus tricolor and Neolestes torquatus, respectively. Further studies of davaineid cestodes from pycnonotids from Africa as well as from South and Southeast Asia may result in discovering much greater diversity of this group than currently known.

Prehistoric Recycling Explained in a Playful Way: The Pfahlbauten Wimmelbild—An Interactive Digital Mediation Tool Designed by Young People

With the “Talents Internship program” established by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG, Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft), 14- to 17-year-old students from various school types visited the Natural History Museum and the Kuratorium Pfahlbauten in summer 2022 to gain practical experience in research. The internship focused on a sustainability approach, discussing recycling methods, the sustainable use of resources and the circular economy in prehistory. The UNESCO World Heritage “Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps” was used as a research area for the project. The project also aimed to make the content developed by the students available to the public as a digital media tool. The pupils brought an illustration of a prehistoric lake shore settlement to life and created an interactive image available at the website of Kuratorium Pfahlbauten. Various scenes of the illustration have been augmented with animations created by the students of HTL Spengergasse in Vienna. Students from federal secondary schools from Vienna (Stubenbastei) and Upper Austria (Traun) researched the information about the objects and wrote texts that, as a description of the animated videos, introduce the users to the prehistoric artifact and explain the recycling process behind it. The students worked independently using the scientific literature, 140-year-old inventory books and 6000-year-old objects from the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna. The activities and the supporting program within the internship were recorded by the students in blog posts, available at the Pfahlbauten-Blog. The co-creative approach of the FFG Talent Internship made it possible to introduce a group of school students to the process of scientific work and the communication of results. It was honored with the Creative App Award at CHNT 2023.

Museum-audience interaction within permanent exhibitions of natural history museums: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT This article reviews the ways in which research into natural history museums has focused on interactions of visitors with permanent exhibitions. The review covers research articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 1990 to 2022. It analyses six aspects of museum-visitor interactions: (1) the conceptualisation, by exhibition curators, of interaction with visitors; (2) the mediation, by museum educators, between museum and audience, through supervised teaching and learning; (3) the interpretation, by visitors in their meaning-making process, of permanent exhibitions; (4) the influence exerted by exhibition qualities on museum-audience interactions; (5) the presentation of subject-specific content; and (6) the institutional mission and social impact of natural history museums, as reflected in their permanent exhibitions. This systematic literature review seeks to help researchers and natural-history museum professionals in their conceptualisation and development efforts, as they work to develop influential permanent exhibitions.

Middle Miocene (Langhian and Lower Serravallian/Badenian) Scallops (Bivalvia: Pectinidae) from the Precious Collections of the Croatian Natural History Museum

Middle Miocene (Langhian and Lower Serravallian/Badenian) Scallops (Bivalvia: Pectinidae) from the Precious Collections of the Croatian Natural History Museum

Data mobilisation at the Fund of Invertebrates of the State Museum of Natural History of the NAS of Ukraine.

The described dataset contains occurrence records of invertebrate specimens deposited at the State Museum of Natural History of the NAS of Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine (SMNH NASU). It combines diverse taxonomic groups, mostly belonging to the class Insecta of the phylum Arthropoda, that were selected as prioritised for digitisation in war conditions. Selected specimens were ascertained as those being the most vulnerable to hostilities and requiring virtual preservation. Such virtual preservation is essential in the war realities as collection can be lost or damaged at any moment, resulting in a significant retrospective biodiversity data gap. At the same time, collection virtualisation and its deposition on the internet grant remote access to scientists who cannot visit it in person due to the war. Moreover, we believe that the mobilisation of the data from the Ukrainian collections and their publication online are essential for the integration of Ukrainian research facilities into a global scientific biodiversity pool. A total of 3,660 occurrence records mobilised in 2023-2024 from the collection of invertebrates of the SMNH NASU, were published. This dynamic dataset will be continually supplied by new records during further digitisation work.

Strategi Kreatif Komunikasi Pemasaran Digital Pada Wisata Museum di Jakarta Barat

The government is currently trying to manage museums in Indonesia and attract the interest of the millennial generation. Currently, the number of visits to the National Museum, Jakarta History Museum, Ceramic Museum and other museums in Jakarta is still low. In fact, these museums are one of the tourist destinations that can be visited by tourists. Therefore, the number of visits still needs to be increased in order to compete with the habits of the millennial generation who often visit shopping centers. The Old City area in Taman Sari District, located in West Jakarta, is a favorite tourist destination for local and foreign tourists. The strength of the Old City area is the existence of Dutch heritage buildings and several museums that are located close together, namely the Jakarta History Museum, the Wayang Museum, the Ceramic and Ceramic Fine Arts Museum and several local Indonesian bank museums such as the BNI Museum (Bank Negara Indonesia 1946), the Bank Mandiri Museum and the Bank Indonesia Museum. Based on the above, researchers are interested in researching Creative Strategies for Museum Tourism in Jakarta.

Bird Specimens Transferred from Overseas Museums to National Museums of Japan in the 1800s: The Tokyo Imperial Household Museum Collection

The Tokyo Imperial Household Museum inherited bird specimens that had been acquired by two national museums between 1872–1923, including specimens of foreign species, non-native to Japan (Kobayashi and Kato 2017). Today, the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology holds most of this collection (Kobayashi and Kato 2017). The collection cannot be effectively used for research, because the specimen data is unclear. My ultimate goal was to restore the collection data for the specimens. As the first step, I examined various archive records (e.g., catalogues, invoices, letters) associated with those museums involved, to clarify details of its transfer history. The collection included specimens sent in the 1800s from, among others, the United States National Museum at the Smithsonian Institution, the Australian Museum, and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris (Kobayashi and Kato 2020a, Kobayashi and Kato 2020b). It also included type specimens, which are academically important. This study demonstrates that catalogues and invoices are useful to clarify the collection transfer history, which may improve the incomplete collection data.

Fashion and Politics, The Politics of Fashion: Józef Simmler’s Portrait of Emilia Włodkowska, Society Portrait and Haute Couture

The article proposes an analytical approach tuned to 19th-century society portraiture and tests it on Józef Simmler’s Portrait of Emilia Włodkowska (1865, National Museum in Warsaw). The pictured ball gown was likely by Worth and presented as being worn in Paris rather than in Warsaw to respect the politically-motivated Polish national mourning (1861–1866), culminating during the January Uprising (1863–1864) against Russian rule, that precluded organizing and attending balls at home. The portrait was an act of public performance—and indeed it was publicly exhibited at the artist’s posthumous exhibition in Warsaw in 1868. Its staging and costuming reflected the sitter’s particular agenda fine-tuned to multifarious current contexts: she promoted her Warsaw fashion house and herself as a respectable society lady and competent agent of French fashion in the period of political turmoil and resultant expectations concerning Polish women’s dress and conduct. The portrait showcases Simmler’s juste milieu approach and illustrates a very current shift in the fashionable female silhouette, advocated by Worth, while referencing the dress and artistic tradition of the 17th and 18th centuries and drawing inspiration from the new medium of photography.

Effects of online tours at the zoo and natural history museum on interest in extant and extinct animals

ABSTRACT During the Corona pandemic, many extracurricular learning sites with a biological focus, such as zoos and natural history museums, were closed. In order to offer students the opportunity to visit these learning sites even under pandemic conditions, online live tours were conducted at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum and the Frankfurt Zoo. To investigate the effects of this educational format on students’ individual interest in extinct prehistoric and extant animals, they were surveyed in writing in a pre/post/follow-up design. The results of the study show a mixed picture. While online tours at the zoo had very little effect on interest in extant animals, significant increases in interest in extinct animals were shown immediately after a tour at the Natural History Museum. But even these effects were not sustained, as follow-up tests demonstrated. Apparently, it is very difficult to maintain interest in animals over a longer period of time through online guided tours. Possible reasons for this are the lack of an authentic experience, the lack of a special atmosphere in the real extracurricular places of learning and the lack of a personal, tangible connection to the exhibits and live animals.

Covariation in Limb-limb and Limb-trunk Proportions in Whites and Blacks and Males in Females using the Hamann-Todd Collection, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Covariation in Limb-limb and Limb-trunk Proportions in Whites and Blacks and Males in Females using the Hamann-Todd Collection, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Network analysis to reveal the most commonly detected compounds in predator-prey pairs in freshwater and marine mammals and fish in Europe

Marine and freshwater mammalian predators and fish samples, retrieved from environmental specimen banks (ESBs), natural history museum (NHMs) and other scientific collections, were analysed by LIFE APEX partners for a wide range of legacy and emerging contaminants (2545 in total). Network analysis was used to visualize the chemical occurrence data and reveal the predominant chemical mixtures for the freshwater and marine environments. For this purpose, a web tool was created to explore these chemical mixtures in predator-prey pairs. Predominant chemicals, defined as the most prevalent substances detected in prey-predator pairs were identified through this innovative approach. The analysis established the most frequently co-occurring substances in chemical mixtures from AP&P in the marine and freshwater environments. Freshwater and marine environments shared 23 chemicals among their top 25 predominant chemicals. Legacy chemical, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene and mercury were dominant chemicals in both environments. Furthermore, N-acetylaminoantipyrine was a predominant pharmaceutical in both environments. The LIFE APEX chemical mixture application (https://norman-data.eu/LIFE_APEX_Mixtures) was proven to be useful to establish most prevalent compounds in terms of number of detected counts in prey-predator pairs. Nonetheless, further research is needed to establish food chain associations of the predominant chemicals.

The practices of care: extinction and de-colonization in the natural history museum

ABSTRACT The practices of care of extinct animal specimens and other materials in natural history museums are many and varied. This article focuses upon two extinct animal examples from the Berlin Museum of Natural History (MfN), the quagga and the thylacine, to present critiques of historical care and argue for Indigenous led alternatives. These critiques and arguments are organized via the organizing headings of isolation, preservation and revolution. While the dark histories of museums as active purchasers and collectors of ancestral remains and creators of markets for scarce forms of life are sometimes acknowledged, it is not a history that has been critically connected to normative practices of ‘isolation’ and ‘preservation’. Indeed, such practices are often heedless of the ongoing demand to recognize Indigenous continuities and are unresponsive to calls for relations that figure the museum ‘materials’ as simultaneously understood as colonial/scientific events and entities that are lively and capable of producing diverse effects. Such understandings emerge from engagement with diverse critiques including those arising from Indigenous writings. One pathway to reimagine the museum and practice an aware care may be to consider the simultaneous times at play within such institutions and the decolonizing possibilities of organizing practices beyond a single linear time.

Initiatives to the Global Representation of Scientific Collections

Ensuring that all global scientific collections become accessible online is a challenge. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) maintains a Global Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl) but as of May 2023, 58% of the collections included in the registry were from institutions based in Europe or North America. This shows a low representation of organizations from other regions. GBIF is addressing the bias with the help of its participant network and regional support teams. The GBIF participant network is actively encouraging institutions in its regions to register and describe their collection data through GBIF and GRSciColl. To complement this effort, the regional support teams based in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe are engaged in mobilizing new collections and updating existing ones (Fig. 1). In addition, a community of editors review changes proposed via a user suggestion system and keeps the entries in GRSciColl updated. The work of the regional support teams involves reviewing institutional web pages or other available online sources to update GRSciColl entries. In cases where the data are not accessible on the web, contacts from the institutions are invited to suggest changes to their GRSciColl pages. As a next step, institutions are contacted to inquire about their interest and plan for sharing open access data. If the response is positive, technical support is offered to help the institutions mobilize and publish the collection data through GBIF. The regional support teams have contacted a number of institutions and several institutions have shown interest in publishing collections on GBIF. Some organizations have already started digitizing and publishing their collection(s). With the training and technical support from the regional support teams, the following institutions have started to share data on GBIF: Instituto de Biodiversidad de Venezuela - INBIO has published data on 23,414 herbarium specimens. Natural History Museum, Tribhuvan University, Nepal has started digitizing its collections and has published eight datasets constituting 1,776 specimens. National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has started digitizing 31 out of its 32 collections, of which they have published two herbarium collections represented as two datasets consisting of over 6,357 specimens. Instituto de Biodiversidad de Venezuela - INBIO has published data on 23,414 herbarium specimens. Natural History Museum, Tribhuvan University, Nepal has started digitizing its collections and has published eight datasets constituting 1,776 specimens. National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has started digitizing 31 out of its 32 collections, of which they have published two herbarium collections represented as two datasets consisting of over 6,357 specimens. This presentation will highlight the data mobilization activities of the institutions, the progress of the GBIF regional support teams (Fig. 2), and the opportunities and challenges experienced in the mobilization effort.

Rediscovering the unusual Cancellus makrothrix Stebbing, 1924 (Crustacea: Decapoda: Diogenidae) in the “Great African Seaforest”

The rare diogenid hermit crab Cancellus makrothrix Stebbing, 1924, previously known from only a few specimens collected a century ago from Algoa Bay, South Africa, has been found to be common in the kelp forest known as the “Great African Seaforest”, and rocky reefs, of False Bay, South Africa. This poorly known species, considered “aberrant” by some carcinologists, is one of 17 known in the genus Cancellus H. Milne Edwards, 1836, and the only of the genus known to occur in the coast of southern Africa. Cancelllus makrothrix lives in gastropod shells, whereas all other congenerics live in a variety of petricolous dwellings that are either excavated or worn away into cylindrical cavities. The newly collected material of C. makrothrix in South Africa, together with the study of historical museum specimens has made possible the detailed redescription and taxonomic discussion of this species presented herein, using full illustrations, photographs, and microCT scans. For future reference, the molecular CO1 genetic barcode is reported. A lectotype is selected from Stebbing’s original syntype material found to consist of two specimens: a female of which only several appendages remain, in the Natural History Museum, London, and a male, illustrated in the original description, in the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town. Taxonomic remarks, comments on biological oddities, brief in situ and laboratory observations of live specimens, and a map summarizing the world distribution of species of Cancellus, are included.

DNA Metabarcoding Analysis of Arthropod Diversity in Dust from the Natural History Museum, Vienna

This paper introduces a new method for identifying museum pests through the analysis of DNA present in settled dust. Traditionally, the identification of pests in cultural institutions such as museums and depositories has relied on insect trapping (monitoring). They give good results but need time (minimum spring until summer of one year for a complete survey) and face challenges related to the identification of small, rare, or damaged species. Our study presents a non-invasive approach that utilizes metabarcoding analysis of dust samples to identify pests and other arthropods at the species level. We collected dust samples with a handheld vacuum cleaner in summer 2023 from the six different floors of the Natural History Museum in Vienna and compared the results with the insect monitoring. We found over 359 different species of arthropods in the museum and could show how the diversity increases with the elevation of the building floor. This method could be used for rapid and cost-effective screening of pests before monitoring. But the interpretation of results is sometimes difficult (for Lepismatidae, for example), and it cannot replace a continuous monitoring of pests with traps. This investigation might present the highest indoor animal biodiversity ever found in a single building.

Products of time: Matchboxes as scientific containers and the social lives of archaeological ephemera

Archaeological work leaves material histories, from archival notes to containers that used to store artifacts. Rarely, however, are these containers preserved or valued as technologies that codified and organized archaeological information. This paper analyzes a collection of matchboxes that were formerly used as artifact containers in a 1940s excavation in Coahuila, Mexico. The matchboxes, never formally accessioned and yet still saved by collections staff, are housed In the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Museum Support Center. By tracing the labor regimes the matchboxes passed through, the specimens they once contained, and the hands that used them in a multitude of ways, this project uses the matchboxes’ microhistories to reveal how archaeological containers influenced archaeological science. This research argues for a treatment of the matchboxes as artifacts themselves, worthy of formal accession and of value for their role in the history of archaeological science.

Redescription of two species of Naineris (Annelida, Orbiniidae) with multiple dorsal organs and description of a new species from the NE Pacific

Naineris bicornis Hartman, 1951 and N. australis Hartman, 1957 are redescribed and compared with specimens from the Northeastern Pacific Ocean. A new species, Naineris elegans sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on collections from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, USA. All three species are similar in terms of the chaetal arrangement and having multiple dorsal organs, but they differ in other characters. Naineris elegans sp. nov. is distinguished by a combination of the following characters: spatulate prostomium, multiple dorsal sensory organs oval to rounded, voluminous, seven per side in most chaetigers, with a brown pigmented base; arranged in two distinct groups in the most anterior segments, then forming two subtriangular groups with apex displaced medially in the following ones, touching each other; thoracic notopodial lobes pear-shaped with blunt tips; thoracic neuropodial lobe with an upper rounded papilla; thoracic neurochaetae with 5–6 transverse, posterior rows of numerous subuluncini; a transverse, anterior row of about 20 crenulate capillaries; an inferior, anterior, oblique row of about 20 hooded uncini and an inferior, posterior, oblique row of capillaries. The new species described here increases the number of known species of Naineris to 22. An updated key of species of Naineris from the Northeastern Pacific Ocean is provided.