Museum Fire Destroys Worlds Largest Snake Collection

[Alyrium Denryle]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/1 ... 79139.html

(TALES AZZONI/AP) SAO PAULO — A fire in Brazil destroyed what may be the world's largest scientific collection of dead snakes, spiders and scorpions that served as the main source for research on many species, scientists said Sunday.

Members of the Instituto Butantan said the nearly 100-year-old collection lost in Saturday's fire included almost 80,000 snakes and several thousand specimens of spiders and scorpions. The specimens were used to study evolution and provided information on how to avert extinctions, said institute director Otavio Mercadante.


"The entire collection was lost, the biggest collection of snakes in the world," curator Francisco Franco told Globo TV and other local media. "It's a loss to humanity."

The institute's live animals were kept at a building adjacent to the one burned, and volunteers rushed to remove them in case the fire spread. The fire did not hurt any humans or live animals.

Many of the animals are used in the production of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals, some derived from venom.

Officials said the production of vaccines and other drugs will not be affected.

"Even if we could gather another collection with 100,000 specimens, the historic value would still be lost," researcher Thais Guedes said.

Some of the specimens had not yet been catalogued.

Authorities said an investigation on what caused the fire was immediately opened. A faulty electrical circuit was among the main possibilities being looked into. The laboratory where the collection was located was open only to researchers and students, but authorities did not immediately discard the possibility of arson.

The dead specimens were preserved in flammable liquids, which helped spread of the flames, said firefighter Capt. Miguel Jodas.

Institute officials said they are already working on a plan to start rebuilding the collection.

To get some scale: This particular collection housed a large number of holotypes, original specimens that were used for original species descriptions. It also housed the only known specimens of species that are now extinct, and their research value for the purposes of tracking species ranges through time is by itself massive. To lose the entire collection is a travesty.

[Wing Commander MAD]

Damn, this certainly sucks. The loss of museums, libraries, archives, etc. is one of the things I hate to hear most of all. Any idea how many unique specimens were lost? Also, for those of us not in the field of biology how exactly bad is the loss of the holotype (other than obvious historical value), particularly when the species is extant or other known specimens exist? I certainly see the obvious problem when it's the only known specimen, particularly if its a fossil specimen or a species we are 100% certain is extinct(ie passenger pigeon).

[Erik von Nein]

That's just downright painful. I can only hope there was something left (pictures or something) that's somewhat useful. Still, holy shit. What happened to their fire suppression systems?

[Alyrium Denryle]

Damn, this certainly sucks. The loss of museums, libraries, archives, etc. is one of the things I hate to hear most of all. Any idea how many unique specimens were lost? Also, for those of us not in the field of biology how exactly bad is the loss of the holotype (other than obvious historical value), particularly when the species is extant or other known specimens exist? I certainly see the obvious problem when it's the only known specimen, particularly if its a fossil specimen or a species we are 100% certain is extinct(ie passenger pigeon).

The species would need to be redescribed. The biggest problem is the loss of voucher specimens and tissue samples. I would need to go through the catalog of the museum before I could tell you how many unique specimens were lost.

[Alyrium Denryle]

That's just downright painful. I can only hope there was something left (pictures or something) that's somewhat useful. Still, holy shit. What happened to their fire suppression systems?

Unless they had a Halon system, it would not have been effective.

[Prannon]

I love reptiles and snakes, so this is very tragic indeed. These sorts of things are bound to happen, though. Are there any sort of contingency plans for the loss of specimins? Aside from keeping more than one and in multiple places?

[Alyrium Denryle]

I love reptiles and snakes, so this is very tragic indeed. These sorts of things are bound to happen, though. Are there any sort of contingency plans for the loss of specimins? Aside from keeping more than one and in multiple places?

Nope. Gone forever those specimens are. Depending on how they were stored the catalogs may survive, so at least records of what was there may be kept. Tissue samples may also have been stored elsewhere. I have never been to this particular collection so I cant say whether that tiny silver lining exists.

The one mercy I suppose is that despite having a huge herpetofauna, S. America has not had many herpegologists over the years so most of their collection is relatively recent and in collaboration with european and american institutions. Most specimens, despite this being the single largest snake collection are housed elsewhere, such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian, the Field Museum in Chicago, the UTA museum (where I do a small portion of my own work), Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Paris etc.

[Prannon]

The one mercy I suppose is that despite having a huge herpetofauna, S. America has not had many herpegologists over the years so most of their collection is relatively recent and in collaboration with european and american institutions. Most specimens, despite this being the single largest snake collection are housed elsewhere, such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian, the Field Museum in Chicago, the UTA museum (where I do a small portion of my own work), Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Paris etc.

That is a good thing to take out of this tragedy, certainly. To be honest, this may make people think twice about keeping specimins too tightly clustered in one place, particularly if they are rare and/or extinct species. I don't know anything about the academic world, but if it occurs to me, it's gotta occur to someone in there somewhere.