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The relevance of Italian museum collections for research and conservation: the case of mammals

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Abstract

The twentieth century saw the decline of interest toward museum collections and an increased support to ‘experimental’ and ‘evolutionary’ biology, implicitly recognising the opposite nature of the ‘old’ museum-based taxonomy. With few exceptions, such as those of Florence and Verona, Italian museums after World War II were pushed at the border of scientific activity by the academic world and had to fight for their survival. Examples from the USA and elsewhere show the increased relevance of modern mammal collections to several fields of research. Despite an increased and welcomed attention to the value of historical collections, there is still scarce awareness of the need and relevance of maintaining and implementing mammal collections in museums as a valuable, long-term, source of data in the field of conservation biology, faunistic, taxonomy, molecular biology and health monitoring. In the present paper we suggest to create a network between mammalogists and a number of mammal collections, with one museum serving as focal point for a national mammal collection.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank two anonymous referees for greatly improving the paper with their comments and Simona Petruzzi for her precious help in revising the English style.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Viale Liegi 48, 00198, Rome, Italy

    Spartaco Gippoliti

  2. CNR Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Viale dell’Università 32, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Giovanni Amori

  3. Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “Charles Darwin”, sede di Anatomia Comparata, Università “La Sapienza” di Roma, Via Borelli 50, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Riccardo Castiglia & Paolo Colangelo

  4. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Via della Lungara 10, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Ernesto Capanna

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  1. Spartaco Gippoliti
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Correspondence to Spartaco Gippoliti.

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Gippoliti, S., Amori, G., Castiglia, R. et al. The relevance of Italian museum collections for research and conservation: the case of mammals. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 25, 351–357 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-014-0304-2

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