Techniques for Recording Natural History Data

Every single observation and specimen is unique and vital to the study of the earth's natural history. If data and specimens are not recorded and labeled properly, important information may become lost forever. Here we present some simple techniques to ensure that the data you are collecting may always be available for study.

This presentation was made possible, in part, with support from The Grainger Foundation. Translations were performed by François Jacquet, Sophy Machaga, Noah Mpunga, Sheila Reynolds, and Tyana Wachter.

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The collection and study of specimens are vital to our understanding of the natural history of Earth.

Each specimen is unique and different then any other specimen.

Thus,

1) each specimen must always be identifiable and

2) information about that specimen must always be available.

To achieve these two necessary aspects of the study of natural history specimens, care should be taken in recording information and labeling the specimen at the time of collection.

We use the example of the skull of a mammal that was found while walking through the forest to demonstrate how (and how not) the specimen should be labeled, and data recorded at the time of collection.

The basic data that should be collected with every specimen include locality and date. Preliminary identification and nature of specimen are also very useful data. Additional remarks can be vital to some studies.

First, give the specimen a unique identification number. The simplest and most effective is to assign the specimen a unique number with the name of the collector. The person who collected the skull in our example was William Stanley and he assigned a unique number to it (1871). William Stanley will never assign number 1871 to any other specimen that he collects no matter when he collects it. The next specimen that William Stanley collects, regardless of whether it is a plant, and insect or a bone will be number 1872.

Locality and date should be detailed and include Country, State (or Province), specific locality (and GPS coordinates, if known), day, month, and year.

Write the month out to avoid confusion. Depending on which country you are from you would record 6 July 2011 as 6/7/2011 or 7/6/2011. Writing 6 July 2011 is understood by everyone. Also, write out the year (don’t write 6 July ’11, as your specimen may be deposited next to a specimen that was collected on 6 July 1911).

The information recorded must be written so that it lasts forever. The type of paper and writing instrument used will help achieve this goal. Some papers and writing instruments are better than others for this purpose.

For example, here is an example of three different writing instruments used to record data: top (William Stanley 1868) - ball point ink; middle (William Stanley 1869 & 1870) pencil; bottom (William Stanley 1871) - permanent ink.

And here is how each reacted when alcohol was accidentally spilled on the data sheet. The same thing can happen with water (such as rain).

The same thing can happen to specimen tags…

…after they have come in contact with fluid.

Just as care should be taken on what and how to record data in a notebook, the specimen should be properly labeled so that it can always be associated with the data in the notebook. The simplest way is to fix the collector number on it. The type of label, ink and thread used are important.

Thicker paper (such as paper from index cards) is better than thin paper from notebooks.

Select thick paper and permanent ink or pencil.

Write the Identification number on the tag.

Place a needle far from the edge of the tag.

Gently pierce the tag.

Thread strong thread through the tag. If the thread is weak the tag can come off the specimen, thus losing the data associated with the specimen forever.