Depositing Specimens in the Collection
Researchers are welcome and encouraged to deposit samples in the Museum's tissue collection. All too often samples are discarded at the completion of a project, and a valuable resource is lost. One of the Museum's principal roles is to catalogue and maintain natural history collections and it has a great deal of expertise in this area. The Australian Museum Tissue Collection offers a central facility to house and maintain tissue samples and DNA extracts, and also to ensure the most value is gained from them by making them available to researchers worldwide.
It is now a requirement of the NSW NPWS Scientific Licence that samples arising from research conducted in NSW on marine mammals are deposited in the Museum's tissue collection. The Specimen Lodgement Agreement aims to protect the rights of the depositor insofar as having exclusive use of the samples for a set period, and acknowledgment as the collector in any publications arising from use of the sample. Any researcher who wishes to deposit samples is welcome to enter into a lodgement agreement with the Museum.
The field guide (download below) to tissue collection produced by the EBU details the procedure by which samples should be stored, labelled and transported to the Museum. It is recommended you read the relevant sections of this document before sending your samples. If you wish to deposit a large series of specimens, you should contact the Tissue Collection Manager for appropriate arrangements to be made.
See also
Opportunistic Collection
Download
Opportunistic Collection of Tissue in the Field
Edition 2; July 2002 (336kb in PDF)
The field guide is only available in PDF format. The FREE Acrobat Reader is required.
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