Recuration and Geo-Referencing of the Herpetological Collection at Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection

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A grant has been awarded to the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station under the direction of Dr. Lee Fitzgerald for partial support of the geo-referencing of the herpetology division of the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collections (TCWC). The herpetology collection was established in 1938, contains one of the most extensive holdings of Latin American and Texas specimens to be found anywhere in the world, including specimens from locations where collection activities have since become difficult or, in some cases, impossible. In recent years the collection has been electronically cataloged for on-line use, been used increasingly for research, teaching, and public outreach, and been partially geo-referenced through active participation in the NSF sponsored HerpNET National Database Project. Biological collections are a foundation for advancing understanding of complex ecological changes over space and time. Given the critical need to address environmental and social problems related to biodiversity, ecological processes, and environmental change, it is important to preserve, expand, and improve existing natural history collections. The geo-referencing activities of this project will allow researchers from around the world to better utilize the collections of the TCWC. Improvements made now to the TCWC herpetology collection will support research on biodiversity and organismal biology; those research activities and the scientific questions they address will continue to benefit from collection improvements long after the life of this project.This collection supports research, teaching, and outreach. In addition, it serves to catalog biodiversity. Natural history collections are increasingly used by diverse user groups in almost every scientific discipline, medicine, and teaching. Improvements to the TCWC herpetology collection will continue those important functions, as well as provide valuable opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in the use and development of natural history collections, specifically herpetology collections.