The Extended Specimen: Emerging Frontiers in Collections-Based Ornithological Research

AmericanOrnithology.org Volume XX, 2019, pp. 1–2 DOI: 10.1093/auk/ukz024 BOOK REVIEW The Extended Specimen: Emerging Frontiers in Collections-Based Ornithological Research Garth M. Spellman Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, Colorado, USA The Extended Specimen: Emerging Frontiers in CollectionsBased Ornithological Research by Michael S. Webster, Editor. 2017. Studies in Avian Biology Series, No. 50. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, USA. 240 pp., 21 color & 32 b&w Illustrations. $145.00 (hardback), $57.95 (eBook), ISBN 9781315120454. I was raised as a specimen-based scientist. My first job in high school was pinning beetle specimens from South America for a paleontologist/entomologist who compared beetle fragments from stratified soil samples to reconstruct paleoenvironments. I will never forget my boss saying to me that the specimens I was preparing were neither for me nor for him, because with proper care they will be around for much longer than either of us. The specimens were “first and foremost a scientific resource for future generations” and they “will be used to address questions we never thought to ask or never dreamed they could answer.” The Extended Specimen, a collection of 13 scientific reviews with 46 contributing authors and edited by Michael S. Webster, summarizes what some of these newly conceived questions are and how ornithological collections can be used to answer them. The title of the book is an homage to Richard Dawkins’s concept of the “extended phenotype.” Dawkins’s idea that the phenotypic effects of a gene extend beyond the individual organism remains a powerful argument that has influenced several avenues of biological inquiry. Webster argues convincingly in the opening chapter that the traditional study skin opens new and exciting avenues of inquiry when viewed under an “extended phenotype” lens. Specimens that were originally collected, prepared, and preserved to catalogue avian species diversity or geographical variation within species can now, through the application of technological and methodological advancements, be used to answer previously unaskable or untestable questions about landscape ecology, community and species distribution ecology, feather color evolution, flight mechanics and physiology, vocal ecology and evolution, finescale anatomical evolution, evolutionary and ecological changes in response to environmental change (climate and urbanization), evolutionary genetics and genomics, disease ecology and evolution, parasitology, and the list could go on. After Webster’s introductory chapter, The Extended Specimen reads like an instructional guide for modern specimen-based research with each chapter focusing on a specific use for old specimens, new specimens, or specimen metadata (such as location or vocal data). The book can be divided effectively into 3 sections. The largest section spans the most chapters (2–10), with each chapter focusing on a specific avenue of scientific inquiry and how specimens or curated digital collections can be used to address certain questions. These chapters can certainly serve as Copyright ©American Ornithological Society 2019. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: . Published May 6, 2019 2 Book Review G. M. Spellman The Auk: Ornithological Advances XX:1–2, © of how to better prepare specimens comes a recognition that each new step increases the amount of work and time required to prepare the animal. However, every chapter also suggests that the small amount of increased investment is far outweighed by the increased value of the specimen. As a curator of an ornithological collection, I can attest to the fact that adopting two-thirds of the recommended modifications to specimen preparation described in the book would significantly increase the amount of time and space required to prepare, store, manage, and curate these items. While curators and museum staff would love to prepare specimens to accommodate any type of study, this is often not feasible given time and space constraints. We are often forced to compromise and make decisions about how an animal will be prepared. These decisions affect how these specimens can be used for future studies. Webster et al.’s summary in the final chapter tries to touch on this idea. They acknowledge that museums are now doing exceedingly more to document and preserve biodiversity in a manner that makes specimens and their metadata more useful for the scientific enterprise. However, field researchers and museum staff are doing more at a time when their resources (human and monetary) are often less than what they were in the past. Recognizing this dissonance, Webster et al. call for new investment in biological collections. I agree wholeheartedly with this recommendation that a renewed investment is needed to fully realize the current and future potential of these invaluable scientific collections. Overall, Webster has brought together an excellent group of ornithologists to expound how ornithological collections provide crucial resources for emerging scientific frontiers. The book persuasively argues that the future of specimen-based research is bright and is contributing to revolutionary scientific advances in many fields. While the immediate audience for the book is obviously students of natural history like me, The Extended Specimen is a useful resource for any ornithologist. Book Review Editor: Jay Mager, 2019 American Ornithological Society an excellent resource for any ornithological research lab, providing insight and guidance to both novice and veteran ornithological researchers. Helen James reviews the state of the art and potential future of anatomical research in chapter 2; in chapter 3, Burns et al. review current methods to assess feather coloration from avian specimens. Mason et al. in chapter 4 discuss methods to incorporate museum and media collections to investigate questions in vocal communication. Bostwick et al. review studies that integrate behavior and morphology in chapter 5, and this is followed by an overview by Wiley et al. of recent techniques in isotope studies in chapter 6. Peterson and NavarroSigüenza then discuss how specimens can be useful in species-distributional ecology (chapter 7), and Claramunt and Wright review how specimens can assist studies in flight and dispersal (chapter 8). In chapter 9, McCormack et al. consider avian specimens as resources for genomic studies, and Lutz et al. review methods for using specimens for studies of avian symbionts in chapter 10. Each of the other 2 sections of the book consist of a single chapter. One by Winkler et al. (chapter 11) describes how student-led expeditions serve as both a way to train the next generation of specimen-based researchers and provide a means of growing modern (i.e. collecting specimens and high-quality metadata, such as vocal or video media, from the specimens) ornithological collections. The other by Cicero et (...truncated)