BERLIN: From Humboldt to HVac—The Zoological Collections of the Museum für Naturkunde Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Berlin

Abstract

The zoological collections of the Museum für Naturkunde comprise historic specimens predating the founding of the institution, series of well-dated specimens collected over its 200-year history as well as modern additions such as tissue samples and sound recordings of animals. Overall, the zoological collections are estimated to hold more than 25 million specimens that are accessed by scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde and from around the world for research mainly in systematics and evolution. The zoological collections of the Museum für Naturkunde have their roots in the Berlin University, which—founded in 1810—had included a zoological museum from the start. After a period of growth as the principal zoological museum in Prussia, this and other museums from the Berlin University were united under the roof of a purpose-built building in 1889. This new “Museum für Naturkunde” underwent enormous growth in the following years, stemming both from expeditions and from acquisitions from the colonies. In World War II, the museum was affected by an air raid that left the eastern wing in ruins. This lasted until the bicentennial anniversary in 2010, when the eastern wing was reopened, now specially equipped for safely storing the vast wet collections in conjunction with a spectacular public insight into the collections. The reconstruction of other parts of the building will follow to provide up-to-date public galleries in conjunction with excellent storage for the invaluable collections. Being an institution that has combined scientific work with education and public outreach from the start, the zoological collections in the Museum für Naturkunde with its numerous international relations and projects will serve these purposes in the future as a backbone of an excellent research museum.

Collection Acronym: ZMB for most zoological collections

Appendix

• 1. National and international networks

• 2. Collection use

• 3. Collection statistics

• 4. Standards

1.1 1. National and International Networks

The collections of the Museum für Naturkunde are part of a dispersed international scientific infrastructure that is linked by joint initiatives, research projects, exhibitions and of course the shared desire among the institutions’ directors and scientists that these collections be maintained, utilized, displayed and augmented. These efforts include national and international projects such as the Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB, http://www.bbib.org/), Synthesys (an integrated European infrastructure for natural history collections, http://www.synthesys.info/), Biota (Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa, http://www.biota-africa.org/) and EDIT (European distributed Institute of Taxonomy, http://www.e-taxonomy.eu/).

1.2 2. Collections Use

The zoological collections of the Museum für Naturkunde are not only used by internal scientists but they also provide a huge international research infrastructure for scientists from all over the world. During the 6-year period from 2009 to 2014, an average of 650 external scientists visited the Museum für Naturkunde annually. In 2014, they spent a total of 2408 days working in the collections. Overall, 1764 collection-related enquiries were recorded in 2014, resulting in 47,921 objects on loan. On average, about 33,000 objects were sent on loan to partner institutions and scientists abroad in each of year between 2009 and 2014, and about 1600 scientific inquiries were answered by the collection staff of the museum.

1.3 3. Zoological Collections Statistics

1.3.1 a. Vertebrate Collections

The oldest stock of the Vertebrate collection are several newly identified reptilian specimens bought from Albertus Seba and donated to the museum in 1817 by Graf Friedrich Heinrich von Borcke (1776–1825, Bauer and Günther 2013) followed by more than 800 fish specimens from M. E. Bloch and P.S. Pallas (late eighteenth century). The vertebrate collections have a global geographic scope with some emphasis on Africa (e.g. Peters, Pascha, Hemprich and Ehrenberg, Stuhlmann), Japan (Döderlein, Hilgendorf) and Southeast Asia (Day, v. Bork and v. Martens). Considerable contributions derive from the early expeditions of exploration vessels like the “S.M.S. Gazelle” (1874–1876) or “Valdivia” (Deutsche Tiefsee-Expedition 1898–1899), from the former colonies at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century and from land expeditions (e.g. Hemprich and Ehrenberg, v. Humboldt, Temminck, and Mayr). Recent activities include additions to the herpetological collection by R. Günther (New Guinea) and M. O. Rödel (West and Central Africa). As depicted above, the Embryological Collection is the largest of its kind and is specialized in vertebrate developmental stages and reproductive organs (histology and wet specimens). Primary collections are not only from A.A.W. Hubrecht and J.P. Hill but also from A. Dohrn, L. Bolk and experimental work by Mangold, Spemann, Grüneberg and others.

Collection	Skeletal preparation	Wet specimens	Skins and mounted specimens	Other collection material	Types	Estimated number of individuals
Ichthyological collection	1100	130,640	1750		>1,700	134,000
Herpetological collection	500	118,000	1500		2600	155,000
Bird collection	7000	5000	155,000	40,000 eggs 1500 nests	6000	207,000
Mammal collection		35,000 lots			2210	150,000–180,000
Embryological Collection	0	3000 lots	0	80,000–100,000 histological slides	0	ca. 30,000 databank entries

1.4 b. Invertebrate Collections (Without Entomology)

The collections comprise all recent invertebrate groups with the exception of insects. Some 6.2 million specimens are systematically arranged and allow for efficient retrieval and curation. The majority of the specimens are preserved in ethanol complemented by dry and microscope slide collections. Most taxa are covered worldwide with rich material from the expeditions of the nineteenth and early twentieth century and from colonial origin. Zoologists such as Kükenthal, von Martens, Döderlein, Arndt, Ehrenberg, Haeckel, Philippi, Dunker, Rudolphi, Blumenbach, Esper, Plate and even Darwin deposited at least part of their material in the Berlin collection. Many of the current marine expeditions by research vessels such as the “Polarstern”, the “Meteor” or the “Sonne” are accompanied by the curators of these collections who thus or in other field work contribute to the growth of the collections.

Collection	Taxa	Curatorial units	Types	Estimated number of individuals
Vermes	Platyhelminthes, Nemathelminthes, Nemertini, Sipuncula, Echiuroidea, Chaetognatha, Pogonophora, Annelida	41,159	2150	100,000
Crustaceans	Crustacea	36,500	800	500,000
Chelicerates/Myriapods/Onychophorans	Chelicerata, Myriapoda, Onychophora	52,300	5098	250,000
Molluscs	Mollusca	110,000	9000	7,000,000
Marine Invertebrates	Porifera, Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Phoronida, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Echinodermata, Pterobranchia, Enteropneusta, Tunicata, Acrania	130,000	3000	350,000

1.4.1 c. Entomology

The insect collections are estimated to count around 15 million predominantly pinned specimens. They have a global geographic coverage with an emphasis in the western Palearctic, Central Asia and the former German colonies and cover approximately 10–30 % of the known insect species. Apart from vast collections of pinned material and a smaller portion of wet specimens, there are several tens of thousands of microscope slides. The oldest specimens date back from at least 1775 and have been part of collections by A. von Humboldt, Pallas, Herbst, Illiger, Gravenhorst, Hellwig, v. Hoffmansegg, Fabricius, Panzer and other eminent entomologists of that time. However, the major part of the collections originates from the nineteenth and early twentieth century and due to collection activities by the curators, they are growing. The insect collections hold an enormous number of type specimens, particularly from the nineteenth century.

Collection	Prepared specimens	Types
Lepidoptera	4,000,000	10,700
Coleoptera	6,000,000	100,000
Hemimetabola	680,000	8800
Hymenoptera	2,227,880	11,700
Diptera and Siphonaptera	1,300,000	21,000
Neuropterida, Orthopteroidea, Sphecidae	350,000	9200
Unprepared material	1,000,000
Entomology total	15,500,000	161,400

1.5 4. Standards

MGC Museum and Galleries Commission Standards 2. in the Museum Care of Biological Collections. 1992. pp. 1–55.

NHM Life and Earth Sciences and Library Collections. Curatorial Policies and Collections Management Procedures 2003—Revised edition. The Natural History Museum, London 2003. pp. 1–47 www.nhm.ac.uk

National Museum of Natural History Department of Entomology Collections Management Policy. Smithsonian, Washington, May 1998. pp. 1–82.

Sammlungsrichtlinien des Museums für Naturkunde Berlin MfN. – Aberhan, M., Leinfelder, R. & Bartsch, P. (eds.) Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, April 2012. pp. 1–62, 15 ff. Appendices.