Diagnosis of the status of the anuran collection at La Salle Museum, Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract (en):

The anuran collection of the Museo de La Salle is one of the oldest in Colombia, with 2059 specimens collected since 1917. Its age represents a challenge for a thorough quantification of its status, considering that it may not necessarily fit current quality standards. Therefore, we implemented a methodology to evaluate the status of the collection in terms of health, data completeness, taxonomic representativeness, taxonomic identification and geographical coverage. The collection harbors 13 families, with Craugastoridae as the best represented, with 44 species and 517 specimens. The department with the largest number of specimens was Cundinamarca, with 363 records of 52 species. Most specimens are in optimal condition of conservation and preservation. The results of this research enabled the solution of problems in the collection and it could be useful for other collections.

Abstract (es):

La colección de anuros del Museo de La Salle es una de las más antiguas de Colombia, con 2059 especímenes recolectados desde 1917. Esa antigüedad representa un reto para cuantificar el estado de la colección de manera integral, considerando que no cumplirá necesariamente con los estándares actuales de calidad. Debido a esto, se implementó una metodología para evaluar el estado de la colección a partir de su salud, la completitud de datos, la representatividad taxonómica, la identificación taxonómica y la representatividad geográfica. Registramos 13 familias, siendo Craugastoridae la más abundante, con 44 especies y 517 especímenes. El departamento con el mayor número de especímenes es Cundinamarca, con 363 registros y 52 especies. Encontramos que la mayoría de los individuos presentan condiciones óptimas de conservación y preservación. Los resultados de esta investigación permitieron solucionar problemas de la colección, y se espera que, a partir de la metodología utilizada, el ejercicio sea de utilidad para otras colecciones.

Keywords:

Colecciones biológicas, Curaduría, Representatividad taxonómica, Índice de salud (es)

Biological collections, Curatorship, Health index, Taxonomic representativeness (en)

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Diagnosis of the status of the anuran collection at La Salle Museum, Bogotá, Colombia

Physical aspects of the collection. We found that 1998 specimens have a value of 5, with accessible storage units, but the collection does not present enough room for collection growth (Figure 1D).

The general collection health index revealed a curatorial level of 71.06 %, with the largest number of records (1633) being in level 7 (Figure 2).


Figure 1. Health index of the anuran collection of the Museo de La Salle, Bogotá, Colombia. A. State of the specimen. B. Specimen data. C. Taxonomic determination. D. Physical aspects of the collection.


Figure 2. General health index of the anuran collection of the Museo de La Salle, Bogotá, Colombia.

Completeness of collection data. The indicator of data completeness showed that 3.22 % of the required fields for the specimens collected before the year 2000 are empty, which correspond to 1 % of the collection event (DW). Mandatory fields were missing in 879 specimens. From these data, 1.33 % correspond to taxonomic information: 1473 specimens do not have the corresponding fields, whereas 6.36 % of the specimens do not comply the Darwin Core standard (Figure 3). For the specimens collected after 2000, 2.06 % of the fields are empty, 1.96 % of the fields of the collection event (DW) are incomplete, 0.87 % corresponding to the taxonomic level, that is, 960 specimens do not comply with the standard, and 3.23 % of the geographical fields do not have the required fields (Figure 4).


Figure 3. Data completeness of the anuran collection of the Museo de La Salle, Bogotá, Colombia, for specimens collected before 2000. A. Fields of the collection event. B. Taxonomic fields. C. Geographic fields.


Figure 4.  Data completeness of the anuran collection of the Museo de La Salle, Bogotá, Colombia, for specimens collected after 2000. A. Fields of the collection event. B. Taxonomic fields. C. Geographic fields.

Representativeness and taxonomic identification. The collection of anurans has a high representation of families (13 out of families), with Craugastoridae and Hylidae as the most representative families, with 44 species each. The family Pipidae (two species) has a low representation in the collection and the family Eleutherodactylidae is not represented. Among the most abundant subfamilies, Ceuthomantinae has 38 species, followed by Leptodactylinae, with 16 species. The least represented subfamilies are Holoadeninae and Hyalinobatrachinae, with one species each. The genus with the highest number of records and species is Pristimantis, with 489 records and 38 species, followed by Dendropsophus, with 184 records and 13 species. The genera with less species are Minyobates and Sphaenorhychus, with three records and one species each. The collection is determined up to species in 92.27 %, which corresponds to 1886 specimens. There are 60 specimens determined up to genus and 186 are not determined.

Geographical representation. At the department level, the collection has a high geographical representation, showing specimens from 31 of the 32 departments (96.87 %). The department with the highest number of records and species is Cundinamarca, with 363 records and 52 species, followed by Santander, with 260 records and 33 species. The departments with the least number of records are Vaupés, Bolívar and the Archipelago de San Andrés Providencia y Santa Catalina, with one species each (Figure 5).


Figure 5. Geographical representativeness of the species by department in the collection of anurans of the Museo de La Salle, Bogotá.

Discussion

The main difference of our study with indexes traditionally used is that indexes were also generated by subcategories (besides a global collection health index), thus allowing for the definition of particular areas in which actions are required for the improvement of the collection (specimen state, specimen data, taxonomic determination or physical aspects of the collection). In addition, adjustments were made within the categories, to evaluate the specimens that were collected before 2005, as is the case of the presence or absence of geographic coordinates, since not all specimens have such information.

In general terms, the anuran collection of the Museo de La Salle is in good condition in comparison with those recorded for other Colombian collections. For example, the amphibian collection at the Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad de Caldas indicates that it needs to be improved, since it had incomplete curatorship and digitization (Serna-Botero & Ramírez- Castaño, 2017) its important to clarify that this data is the result of another methodology, which means that a direct comparison cannot be made between the two studies. At the Instituto Humboldt, 4701 specimens of the amphibian collection (52.39 %) are in level 5, showing that the collection needs re-labeling, taxonomic updating and organization (Rueda, 2005). The herpetological collection of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana had a health index of 1.46 %, which indicates that it needs improvement; the low value is due to the lack of information records for specimens, and geographic information in field notebooks, in addition to an inadequate organization of the collection (Corredores, 2009).

In 2009, the Museo de La Salle evaluated the health index of its anuran collection (strictly following the methods proposed by Simmons & Muñoz-Saba (2005). In that study, the general health index obtained was 1.21 % (Contreras, 2009), evidencing a low level of curatorship, the lack of cataloging, the need to improve storage conditions, verification and updating of taxonomic determinations, standardization of localities and georeferencing, as well as reviewing if the specimens were reported in scientific publications.

The current health index of the La Salle collection shows that its curatorship has improved. In 2009 the collection was arranged taxonomically, and today it is completely based on a catalog number system and numerically arranged. In the new method proposed here, specific aspects of the specimens were considered and not only general aspects that could cause a conflict when deciding the assignment of a curatorial level (Appendix 1). When analyzing each category separately, it is possible to see that not all categories are at the same level, which allows proposing management strategies and determining improvements for each category.

A method similar to the one proposed in this paper was proposed by the Museo de Zoología de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (QCAZ). The authors describe by subcategories the criteria to evaluate the status of the specimens (Camacho & Burneo, 2009), obtaining a value roughly similar to that of Museo de La Salle (79 %).

The figure of 3.22 % of fields empty for the specimens collected before 2000 reflects the fact that the collection has old specimens which do not fulfill the Darwin Core standard. This emphasizes the need of a special analysis for specimens older than 10 years. Even if they do not meet modern standards, those specimens are of vital importance, because they can be used for genetic studies involving species and populations already extinct (Burrell et al., 2015). These collections also offer the opportunity to do future research in taxonomy and evolutionary history of species located in remote areas, using modern techniques (Besnard et al., 2016).

In the specimens with records, the figure of 2.06 % of specimens obtained after the year 2000, which do not comply with the Darwin Core standard is low compared to that found by Corredores (2009), in which a value of 92.7 % empty mandatory fields was obtained. On the other hand, in the collection of Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad de Caldas, 50 % of the fields corresponding to microhabitat and description were empty (Serna-Botero & Ramírez- Castaño, 2017). Additionally, the collection of Museo Javeriano (MUJ) presented a percentage of 76.6 % with critical fields, due to the methods used to enter the information into the databases (Vallejo & Acosta, 2005). These fields prevent the information contained in the databases from being used efficiently, thus limiting their scope (Villarreal et al., 2006; Trujillo et al., 2014).

The collection of the Museo de La Salle has 8.82 % of specimens without information in geographical fields, limiting the utility of the collection. However, many of these specimens have the description of locality, allowing for a future georeferencing process (Besnard et al., 2016). The results of this research show the enormous possibility of using the collection of anurans at the Museo de La Salle in different studies.

The anuran collection has 1607 specimens that comply with all the obligatory taxonomic fields. Their information can strengthen the national biodiversity inventory (MADS, 2013). The lack of geographic data, specifically in terms of georeferences for Museo de La Salle and the data obtained for the Museo de Historia Natural de La Universidad de Caldas, in which of the information was complete (data collector, locations, georeferencing, among others). That collection, unlike the one of the Museo de La Salle, has morphometric information. However, in both institutions the microhabitat information, field descriptions and additional observations are not present in the database or in the specimen (Serna-Botero & Ramírez-Castaño, 2017). However, those specimens and their information may be useful data sources about the country's biodiversity (Donato et al., 2015www.sibcolombia.net).

Because of its high geographical representativeness (96.87 %) the anuran collection of Museo de La Salle plays an important role as an information repository for the country (Besnard et al., 2016). In addition, this information allows for the identification of sites where species can potentially be found and areas with high specific richness (Flores-Maldonado et al., 2015).

The indices used in this study may generate a diagnosis in which all the necessary aspects for the conservation of biological collections are considered, and thus monitoring, maintenance and improvement strategies may be developed. In this way, the role of collections as sources of information for different types of research about taxonomy, biological diversity, geographic distribution or genetics, among others, may be enhanced.

Reference

Acosta, G. (2017). Lista de los anfibios de Colombia. Online reference. Obtained on March 5th, 2017 from

http://www.batrachia.com.

Besnard, G., Bertrand. J., Delahaie, B., Bourgeios, Y., Lhuillier, E. & Thébaud, C. (2016). Valuing museum specimens: high-throughput DNA sequencing on historical collections of New Guinea crowned pigeons (Goura). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 117(1), 71-82.

https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12494

Berrío, J., Vásquez, M. & Estrada, V. (2011). Museo de Historia Natural Colegio de San José Natural and historical heritage. Colección Bicentenario de Antioquia. 72 pp

Burrell, A., Disotell, T. & Bergey, C. (2015). The use of museum specimens with high-throughput DNA sequencers. Journal of Human Evolution, 79, 35-44.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.10.015

Cárdenas, S. & Delgadillo, A. (2017). Diagnostico del estado de la colección de anuros del Museo de La Salle - Bogotá. (Thesis). Bogotá D. C.: Universidad de La Salle. 57 pp.

Camacho, A. & Burneo, S. (2009). Assessment of the mammal collection at the Museo de Zoología of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador – QCAZ. Museology, 12, 1-11.

Contreras, N. (2009). Colecciones: Batracologia: Anuros (Ranas y Sapos). (Technical report). Bogotá, D. C.: Museo de La Salle Bogotá. 9 pp.

Corredores, L. (2009). Diagnóstico de la colección de referencia de anfibios de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. (Degree work). Bogotá D. C.: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology. 125 pp.

Donato, J., Ortiz, C., Vega, E., Ramírez, A. & Vieira, P. (2015). Plan institucional cuatrienal de investigación ambiental 2015-2018. Bogotá, D. C.: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. 88 pp.

Escalante, T., Llorente, J., Espinosa, D. & Soberón, J. (2000). Base de datos y sistemas de información: aplicaciones en biogeografía. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, 92, 1-17.

Fernández, G., Sosa, V., León, J. & Cortés, J. (2004). Colecciones Biológicas Centros de Investigación CONACYT. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT). 132 pp.

Forero, E. (2012). Colecciones científicas de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia sistema de información sobre biodiversidad UN-SIB. Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. 30 pp.

Flores-Maldonado, J., Ruvalcaba-Ortega, I., Moreno, A., García, M., Favela, S. & González, J. (2015). Representatividad geográfica y ambiental del inventario de especies en el área de protección de recursos naturales “Cuenca Alimentadora del distrito Nacional de riego 004 Don Martín” Coahuila, México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 86(3), 809-822.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmb.2015.08.002

Instituto Humboldt.  (2007). Memorias encuentro de experiencias en inventarios y Monitoreo biológico. Bogotá D. C., Colombia: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. 86 pp.

Instituto Humboldt. (2014). Protocolo para el depósito de especímenes colecciones de especímenes y de sonidos ambientales. Bogotá D. C., Colombia: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. 6 pp.

Lozano, M. (2009). Análisis de los registros geográficos y taxonómicos mediante SIG en la colección de anfibios de la pontificia Universidad Javeriana. (Thesis). Bogotá D. C.: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology. 160 pp.

MADS-Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible. (2013). Por el cual se reglamentan las colecciones biológicas. Numeral 11 of article 189 of the Political Constitution and article 2 numeral 11 and 12 of Decree Law 3570 of 2011. 8 pp.

McGinley, R. J. (1993). Where’s the management in collections management? Planning for improved care, greater use, and growth of collections. In Rose, C. L., Williams, S. L. & Gisbert, J. (Eds.). Current Issues, Initiatives, and Future Directions for the Preservation and Conservation of Natural History Collections. Pp. 309-333. Madrid, Spain: Ministerio de Cultura. 3: xxvii + 1-439 pp.

Paradell, D. & Defea, B. (2017). Indicadores de biodiversidad en colecciones científicas: diagnosis de la colección Cicadellidae (Insecta: Hemiptera) del Museo de La Plata, Argentina. Caldasia, 39(1), 19-32.

https://doi.org/10.15446/caldasia.v39n1.54618

Ramírez, D. & Bernal, A. (2006). Protocolo para la preservación y manejo de colecciones biológicas. Boletín Científico Museo de Historia Natural, 10, 117-148.

Rueda, L. (2005). Índice de salud de la colección herpetológica del Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Universidad del Magdalena. 22 pp.

Serna-Botero, V. & Ramírez- Castaño, R. (2017). Curaduría y potencial de investigación de la colección herpetológica del museo de historia natural de la universidad de caldas, Manizales, Colombia. Boletín científico Centro de Museos, Museo de Historia Natural, 21, 138-153.

Simmons, J. & Muñoz-Saba, Y. (2005). Cuidado, manejo y conservación de las colecciones biológicas. Bogotá D. C.: Conservación Internacional, Serie Manual de Campo. 146 pp. 

Trujillo, E., Vargas, A. & Salazar, L. (2014). Clasificación, manejo y conservación de colecciones biológicas: una mirada a su importancia para la biodiversidad. Momentos de Ciencia, 11(2), 97-106.

Vallejo, M. & Acosta, A. (2005). Aplicación de indicadores de conocimiento sobre biodiversidad para el diagnóstico y comparación de colecciones biológicas. NOVA, 3(4), 1-116.

https://doi.org/10.22490/24629448.336

Villarreal, H., Álvarez, M., Córdoba, S., Escobar, F., Fagua, G., Gast, F., Mendoza, H., Ospina, M. & Umaña, A. M. (2006). Manual de métodos para el desarrollo de inventarios de biodiversidad. Bogotá, D. C.: Biodiversity Inventories Program. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Bogotá. 236 pp.


Appendix 1. Results of the Health Index (CHI) from the anuran collection of the Museo La Salle, Bogotá, Colombia, developed in 2009 with the proposal put forward by Simmons & Muñoz-Saba (2005), compared with those obtained in the present study.

References

Acosta, G. (2017). Lista de los anfibios de Colombia. Online reference. Obtained on March 5th, 2017 from

http://www.batrachia.com.

Besnard, G., Bertrand. J., Delahaie, B., Bourgeios, Y., Lhuillier, E. & Thébaud, C. (2016). Valuing museum specimens: high-throughput DNA sequencing on historical collections of New Guinea crowned pigeons (Goura). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 117(1), 71-82.

https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12494

Berrío, J., Vásquez, M. & Estrada, V. (2011). Museo de Historia Natural Colegio de San José Natural and historical heritage. Colección Bicentenario de Antioquia. 72 pp

Burrell, A., Disotell, T. & Bergey, C. (2015). The use of museum specimens with high-throughput DNA sequencers. Journal of Human Evolution, 79, 35-44.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.10.015

Cárdenas, S. & Delgadillo, A. (2017). Diagnóstico del estado de la colección de anuros del Museo de La Salle - Bogotá. (Thesis). Bogotá D. C.: Universidad de La Salle. 57 pp.

Camacho, A. & Burneo, S. (2009). Assessment of the mammal collection at the Museo de Zoología of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador – QCAZ. Museology, 12, 1-11.

Contreras, N. (2009). Colecciones: Batracologia: Anuros (Ranas y Sapos). (Technical report).

Bogotá D. C.: Museo de La Salle Bogotá. 9 pp.

Corredores, L. (2009). Diagnóstico de la colección de referencia de anfibios de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. (Degree Thesis). Bogotá D. C.: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology. 125 pp.

Donato, J., Ortiz, C., Vega, E., Ramírez, A. & Vieira, P. (2015). Plan institucional cuatrienal de investigación ambiental 2015-2018. Bogotá D. C.: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. 88 pp.

Escalante, T., Llorente, J., Espinosa, D. & Soberón, J. (2000). Base de datos y sistemas de información: aplicaciones en biogeografía. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, 92, 1-17.

Fernández, G., Sosa, V., León, J. & Cortés, J. (2004). Colecciones Biológicas Centros de Investigación CONACYT. México: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT). 132 pp.

Forero, E. (2012). Colecciones científicas de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia sistema de información sobre biodiversidad UN-SIB. Bogotá D.C.: Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. 30 pp.

Flores-Maldonado, J., Ruvalcaba-Ortega, I., Moreno, A., García, M., Favela, S. & González, J. (2015). Representatividad geográfica y ambiental del inventario de especies en el área de protección de recursos naturales “Cuenca Alimentadora del distrito Nacional de riego 004 Don Martín” Coahuila, México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 86(3), 809-822.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmb.2015.08.002

Instituto Humboldt. (2007). Memorias encuentro de experiencias en inventarios y Monitoreo biológico. Bogotá D. C.: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. 86 pp.

Instituto Humboldt. (2014). Protocolo para el depósito de especímenes colecciones de especímenes y de sonidos ambientales. Bogotá D. C.: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. 6 pp.

Lozano, M. (2009). Análisis de los registros geográficos y taxonómicos mediante SIG en la colección de anfibios de la pontificia Universidad Javeriana. (Thesis). Bogotá D. C.: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology. 160 pp.

MADS-Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible. (2013). Por el cual se reglamentan las colecciones biológicas. Numeral 11 of article 189 of the Political Constitution and article 2 numeral 11 and 12 of Decree Law 3570 of 2011. 8 pp.

McGinley, R. J. (1993). Where’s the management in collections management? Planning for improved care, greater use, and growth of collections. In Rose, C. L., Williams, S. L. & Gisbert, J. (Eds.). Current Issues, Initiatives, and Future Directions for the Preservation and Conservation of Natural History Collections. Pp. 309-333. Madrid, Spain: Ministerio de Cultura.

Paradell, D. & Defea, B. (2017). Indicadores de biodiversidad en colecciones científicas: diagnosis de la colección Cicadellidae (Insecta: Hemiptera) del Museo de La Plata, Argentina. Caldasia, 39(1), 19-32.

https://doi.org/10.15446/caldasia.v39n1.54618

Ramírez, D. & Bernal, A. (2006). Protocolo para la preservación y manejo de colecciones biológicas. Boletín Científico Museo de Historia Natural, 10, 117-148.

Rueda, L. (2005). Índice de salud de la colección herpetológica del Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Universidad del Magdalena. 22 pp.

Serna-Botero, V. & Ramírez- Castaño, R. (2017). Curaduría y potencial de investigación de la colección herpetológica del museo de historia natural de la universidad de caldas, Manizales, Colombia. Boletín científico Centro de Museos, Museo de Historia Natural, 21, 138-153.

Simmons, J. & Muñoz-Saba, Y. (2005). Cuidado, manejo y conservación de las colecciones biológicas. Bogotá D. C.: Conservación Internacional. 146 pp.

Trujillo, E., Vargas, A. & Salazar, L. (2014). Clasificación, manejo y conservación de colecciones biológicas: una mirada a su importancia para la biodiversidad. Momentos de Ciencia, 11(2), 97-106.

Vallejo, M. & Acosta, A. (2005). Aplicación de indicadores de conocimiento sobre biodiversidad para el diagnóstico y comparación de colecciones biológicas. NOVA, 3(4), 1-116.

https://doi.org/10.22490/24629448.336

Villarreal, H., Álvarez, M., Córdoba, S., Escobar, F., Fagua, G., Gast, F., Mendoza, H., Ospina, M. & Umaña, A. M. (2006). Manual de métodos para el desarrollo de inventarios de biodiversidad. Bogotá, D. C.: Biodiversity Inventories Program. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Bogotá. 236 pp.

How to Cite

Cárdenas Hincapie, J. S., & Delgadillo Méndez, D. A. (2019). Diagnosis of the status of the anuran collection at La Salle Museum, Bogotá, Colombia. Biota Colombiana, 20(2), 105–119. https://doi.org/10.21068/c2019.v20n02a08

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