Recently, Megan McCuller (NCMNS Collections Manager of Non-molluscan Invertebrates, aka my partner in ‘crime’) and I spoke with Trista Talton, staff writer for Coastal Review. What came from it was a wonderful article that just dropped today.
https://coastalreview.org/2022/12/spineless-specimens-may-hold-clues-for-coastal-researchers/
TL;DR - Museum collections are an invaluable and powerful resource.
Although the collections at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences are housed behind the scenes, out of the public eye, they are NOT top secret! The NCMNS Non-molluscan Invertebrates Collection contains one of the largest & most historically important collections of marine invertebrates in - and of - the Mid-Atlantic & Southeastern U.S. Our online presence (e.g., on GBIF) is minimal at present for 🤯 *reasons*, but that WILL change.
If you are interested in our holdings, please reach out to me and/or Megan McCuller. What questions can be addressed using these collections? Where to even begin? WE begin by getting the word out that we exist. We are but one collection. Think of the power of networks of natural history collections (e.g., NCMNS+Virginia Museum of Natural History+Florida Museum+Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History+etc! #museum #museumcollections #scicomm #crustacea #curation