Scientist worried about Te Papa's biological collections – Brinkwire

Trevor Worthy is a New Zealand paleontologist who works at Flinders University in Australia. His concerns are of growing concern to New Zealand's scientific community over proposed job cuts at New Zealand's Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum

Last week, the former director of collection services at Te Dad Mike Rudge told Kathryn Ryan ] Nine to No that "job cuts in our national museum would seriously compromise collections."

million. Worthy understands that the current restructuring proposal could reduce to three the number of collection managers for all natural history collections. , which includes more than one million specimens of fish, marine mammals, insects, spiders, birds, fossils and plants.

He says that if that's the case, "he cuts an already skeletal crew to an absolutely critical skeleton team that would not be able to handle the collections."

"This seems to be a continuing denigration because we have already lost a significant number of managers in the collections. "

There have been a number of restructurings at Te Papa, including the recent ones in 2013 and 2015.

" For 35 years that I'm associated with the collections, "says Dr. Worthy," we've lost nearly half of the current workers. And by that, I mean the collection managers and curators who managed and did these collections. "

He quotes the previous loss of experts in crustaceans, mammals and echinoderms, and says" we have none now in Te Papa. "

Dr. Worthy says that the main users of Te Papa's national collections are external experts, from New Zealand and abroad, and he is sorry that there is no external consultation on the proposed restructuring.

"I think it's incredibly Dr. Worthy asserts that Te Papa's natural history collections are important as they underpin our understanding of New York's biodiversity. The United Kingdom and its Pacific neighbors

"They are a resource for all future researchers, not just in New Zealand, but around the world."

Dr. Worthy says collections must be properly managed and managed It is important that collections are not static – "they must grow".

He says we are in the midst of a dramatic extinction event.

"Biota is completely altered and should no longer be recognized." Dr. Worthy points out that the evolution of technologies allows researchers to use collections in a way that was once unimaginable. 19659009] This week, for example, Our Changing World presents a recently published collaboration between archaeologists, fossil experts (including Alan Tennyson of Te Papa) and former DNA experts who produced DNA barcodes to identify unrecognizable bone fragments, including Te Papa

This study has greatly contributed to our understanding of the range of species hunted and consumed by the early Maori, and has also identified He adds to a growing body of information on early New Zealand biotics, which relies on specimens preserved in natural history collections, including collections of e Te Papa.

In an interview last week with Kathryn Ryan, Te Papa's general manager, Geraint Martin, said that there had been preliminary discussions about the possibility that the Te Papa fish collection be transferred to NIWA.

In response, Dr. Worthy maintains that Te Papa

"These collections constitute the national collection of New Zealand's natural history.They are invested in the museum by an act of Parliament that must be taken in charge by the New Zealand people. "

" If you give a part of one of these collections to a [Crown Research Institute] you give it basically to a private organization.These organizations have no law of Parliament, no legal responsibility to maintain such collections. "

" They could take them today but there would be absolutely nothing preventing them from throwing them tomorrow. "

The media say that the suggestion of the move of Te Papa's collections to a satellite museum in South Auckland, presented for the first time in 2015, is also back on the table. Auckland is more seismically stable than Wellington, although Dr. Worthy says the natural history collection center at Wellington Center is well designed to withstand major earthquakes.

Dr. Worthy does not object to the idea that museums

He is concerned however that specimens have been damaged during transport and it is essential that seasoned curators and collection managers who know intimately the collections stay with them

. Important collections of international importance, including art, Maori and Pacific mātaraunga, as well as natural history.

There are over 2.2 million items in Te Papa's collections, half of which are in the natural history collections. These include vertebrates (birds, marine mammals, etc.), invertebrates, fossils and plants.

The natural history collection includes specimens collected during Captain James Cook's New Zealand expeditions in the late 1700s

of thousands of New Zealand fossil and mollusc Pacific in Te Papa's collections, many of which come from the famous Miocene fossil site of St Bathans in Central Otago

In its 2017 annual report, Te Papa values ​​these irreplaceable collections. $ 869 million. The natural history collection is valued at $ 133 million

The Te Papa Tongarewa 1992 Law of the New Zealand Museum states that the collection, maintenance and growth of the collections constitute the main function of the museum. Treasure of information on our natural world. New Zealand has 29 large taxonomic collections in various institutions, including museums, universities, and Crown research institutes. Together, they contain more than 12 million batches of specimens – some of which contain many objects – including vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, fungi, micro-organisms and fossils.

At the end of 2015, the Royal Society Te Apārangi published a report on Taxonomic Collections in New Zealand that raised concerns about their uncertain future. They discussed issues of short-term funding, fragmented and uncoordinated management, lack of legal protection, and a small pool of aging experts with the necessary knowledge to use them. To occupy it.