Wildlife biologists are on the right track: A mammalogist's view of specimen collection

First record of Myotis albescens (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) in French Guiana

“…Nogueira et al (2014) used the same criterion—presence of vouchers in collections—for building their checklist of Brazilian bats. We agree with this position because vouchers are the primary verifiable and testable evidence of a species existence and occurrence, and they are particularly important for small mammals due to difficulties in identifying individuals under field conditions (Moratelli 2014). Based in one specimen deposited in the Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Geneva, Switzerland (MHNG 1990.017), we confirm the occurrence of M. albescens in French Guiana.…”

“…Other putative occurrences of M. albescens outside this well-documented distribution are based on poorly documented (or unverifiable) field identification that are likely erroneous. This stresses the importance of vouchered and carefully identified specimens to appropriately record species occurrences in such difficult taxonomic groups as the Neotropical Myotis (Moratelli 2014). …”

Taxonomic revision of the tigrina Leopardus tigrinus (Schreber, 1775) species group (Carnivora, Felidae)

“…Regardless the taxa, the proper evaluation of the species and subspecies ranks should be based on a geographic broad scale, taking into account the individual, sexual, population and geographic variation, and preferable using complementary approaches. In this sense, the scientific museums have a key role for house a sample of the biological diversity (de Vivo et al, 2014;Moratelli, 2014). From a conservation perspective, the split into three species of the tigrina group may change our view about the extinction susceptibility risk.…”

Pathology in the appendicular bones of southern tamandua, Tamandua tetradactyla (Xenarthra, Pilosa): injuries to the locomotor system and first case report of osteomyelitis in anteaters

“…In other vertebrate groups, biological collections are often used to track infectious diseases and potential reservoir species [41]. For instance, analysis of museum rodent specimens helped establish the relationship of these specimens and their large populations with the increased risk of human infection with Hantavirus (Bunyaviridae) in Southwestern United States [41–44]. Similarly, analysis of influenza virus preserved in bird specimens from the Smithsonian Institution, which were compared with tissue samples from humans infected in the 1918 global influenza outbreak, revealed a greater similarity of the virus that caused this pandemic with the swine and human viruses than with the avian influenza virus [41, 45, 46].…”