The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education

Abstract

Natural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and educational innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all stages of their careers, they can provide a place-based window to focus on integration of science and discovery, as well as a locus for community engagement. At the same time, like a synthesis radio telescope, when joined together through emerging digital resources, the global community of museums (the ‘Global Museum’) is more than the sum of its parts, allowing insights and answers to diverse biological, environmental, and societal questions at the global scale, across eons of time, and spanning vast diversity across the Tree of Life. We argue that, whereas natural history collections and museums began with a focus on describing the diversity and peculiarities of species on Earth, they are now increasingly leveraged in new ways that significantly expand their impact and relevance. These new directions include the possibility to ask new, often interdisciplinary questions in basic and applied science, such as in biomimetic design, and by contributing to solutions to climate change, global health and food security challenges. As institutions, they have long been incubators for cutting-edge research in biology while simultaneously providing core infrastructure for research on present and future societal needs. Here we explore how the intersection between pressing issues in environmental and human health and rapid technological innovation have reinforced the relevance of museum collections. We do this by providing examples as food for thought for both the broader academic community and museum scientists on the evolving role of museums. We also identify challenges to the realization of the full potential of natural history collections and the Global Museum to science and society and discuss the critical need to grow these collections. We then focus on mapping and modelling of museum data (including place-based approaches and discovery), and explore the main projects, platforms and databases enabling this growth. Finally, we aim to improve relevant protocols for the long-term storage of specimens and tissues, ensuring proper connection with tomorrow’s technologies and hence further increasing the relevance of natural history museums.

Anthropologically introduced biases in natural history collections, with a case study on the invertebrate paleontology collections from the middle Cambrian Spence Shale Lagerstätte

“…One estimate of this disparity in paleontology collections found there are 23 times more localities represented in museum collections than published in the literature (Marshall et al, 2018). The current estimates of specimens held in natural history museums is 1.2-2.1 x 10 9 , with less than 5% available through data aggregators (Ariño, 2010;Bakker et al, 2020). The publication record of museum collections is a magnitude smaller, and so is only capturing a minute percentage of the capacity of museum collections.…”

“…Natural history collections (NHCs) are undergoing a transformative role within science during the twenty-first century. More so than ever, the specimens they contain are being applied to "big data" interdisciplinary problems such as disease control, the global biodiversity and ecological crises, and mitigation and measurement of the effects of global warming (Suarez and Tsutsui, 2004;Winker, 2004;Baird, 2010;Pyke and Ehrlich, 2010;Bakker et al, 2020;Hedrick et al, 2020). New technological applications and methodologies, such as genomics, computational statistics, CT scanning, and machine learning are bringing renewed interest and application to historic collections, decades or even centuries after they have been established (Wandeler et al, 2007;Nelson and Ellis, 2018).…”

Comment on the letter of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) dated April 21, 2020 regarding “Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil-based scientific data”: the importance of private collections

“…Joint knowledge, specimens and collections, efforts and activities of amateurs and institution-based professionals are more than the sum of their parts. Answers to diverse biological, environmental, and societal questions at the global scale, across eons of time, and spanning vast diversity across the Tree of Life is the main goal of the global community of museums (the 'Global Museum') joined together through emerging digital resources (Bakker et al 2020). In many countries (e.g.…”

On the role of (and threat to) natural history museums in mammal conservation: an African small mammal perspective

“…Although not explicitly mentioned by the authors, Central Africa's growing interest in evolution and conservation education at the collegiate level could also benefit from the establishment of regional museums, especially when combined with university programs located in close proximity to important conservation areas (Anthony et al 2015). The age of digitization provides a unique opportunity for such regional institutions to join what is being called the "Global Museum", providing opportunities for training in biodiversity informatics, GIS, and computer science, all of which go hand in hand with modern NHMs (Bakker et al 2019).…”