New Data from Old Specimens

Abstract

Museums provide a wealth of scientific information via preserved natural history specimens, including but not limited to dietary, morphological, and geographic distributions of organisms. In the modern molecular age, however, fluid-preserved museum collections have not always been at the frontline for generating useable data, despite the fact that for some species, only museum specimens are known, with no fresh genetic materials available. We are now at a major shift in our ability to use museum specimens for molecular phylogenetics, where modern subgenomic sequencing techniques better allow for successfully sequencing hundreds to thousands of phylogenetically informative loci for historical specimens, including formalin- and fluid-preserved amphibians and reptiles. Here, I review the current state of the field, with respect to studies which have successfully generated high-throughput molecular datasets using fluid-preserved specimens for herpetofauna, particularly for systematic studies. Although only six publications fitting the search criteria were found, these studies provide a wealth of knowledge on the uses of museum herpetological specimens for modern work and illustrate just how important historical specimens are for enhancing our current understanding of species genetic structure, phylogenetic placements, and for disentangling taxonomic conundrums. In an age where both museums and general collecting come under critique from the general public, this review emphasizes the continued importance of museum specimens across all subfields in the study of amphibians and reptiles.