Abstract

SERNA-BOTERO, Vanessa  and  RAMIREZ-CASTANO, Viviana Andrea. CURATORSHIP AND RESEARCH POTENTIAL OF THE HERPETOLOGICAL COLLECTION OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AT UNIVERSIDAD DE CALDAS, MANIZALES, COLOMBIA. Bol. Cient. Mus. Hist. Nat. Univ. Caldas [online]. 2017, vol.21, n.1, pp.138-153. ISSN 0123-3068.  https://doi.org/10.17151/bccm.2017.21.1.11.

Universidad de Caldas has a biological collection since 1975 made up of specimens of different groups of invertebrates and vertebrates from which various research and teaching processes in diverse areas of biology have derived. Despite this great potential, the state of the collection has been compromised by factors that over time have affected its life time and preservation. For this reason, the goal of this research was the improvement of the collection conditions of the amphibians and reptile specimens registered in the Natural History Museum at Universidad de Caldas (NHM-UCa) until December 2013, according to national standards. Curatorship was carried out for both collections applying the principles of preventive conservation, and the information associated with each one was updated in databases and physical catalogs. Their state was evaluated using the Community Health Index (CHI) and the management of priorities for biological collections and the percentage of taxonomic identification of the specimens was determined. The 761 amphibians in the collection were grouped in 13 families, 34 genera and 88 species, where 82.5% of the species are identified up to a specific level. Curatorship was conducted for 760 samples whose ISC was 85.5% for 2014. The collection of reptiles includes 256 species belonging to 14 families, 44 genera and 74 species, all from the order Squamata from which 84.4% are identified up to species. Curatorship was conducted to 254 specimens in total whose ISC for 2014 was 85.8%. Considering the potential of information included in both collections, it is expected that scientific education and research activities are promoted through these specimens, at times forgotten, as a source of information for biodiversity studies in Colombia, mainly in the Andean ecoregion.

Keywords : biological collections; amphibians; reptiles; preventive conservation; systematization.

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