Nomenclatural, Curatorial, and Archival Best Practices for Symbiotypes and Other Type Materials in Natural History Collections

Résumé du livre

The emergence of several zoonotically-driven pandemics and near-pandemics (MERS, SARS, H1N1, Ebola, COVID-19, among others) over the last 20 years has placed an increasing emphasis on the importance of symbiotypes and the role of natural history collections, as virologic and human health studies are incorporating symbiotypes and host specimens as part of their research response. Because designation of symbiotypes and host specimens involves natural history collections, there is a growing need for a discussion pertaining to the archival integration of information on symbiotypes, host specimens, and associated data in natural history collections. Furthermore, due to the involvement of specialized researchers, such as virologists and epidemiologists, there is an expanding portion of the zoonotic research community that is further removed from research practices involving the principles of nomenclature and the rules and standards governing the description of taxa new to science. Finally, as the number of traditional field biologists and natural history museum curators retire and are not replaced, there is an increasing urgency to develop protocols and procedures for the establishment of best practices and to standardize methodologies in zoonotic research for all participants. In this paper, the authors: 1) outline a number of nomenclatural, curatorial, and archival best practices for the treatment of symbiotypes in natural history collections; 2) introduce the concept of the symbioparatype and symbiotopotype, which represents a compromise between the conflicting mission of natural history museums to protect archivally important specimens and the ever-growing demand for critical research material; and 3) comment on multiple standards and guidelines to assist a broad array of researchers ranging from field biologists and systematists to virologists and public health scientists.