Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author:
Academic editor: Vasilis Gerovasileiou
Received: 21 Sep 2016 | Accepted: 28 Oct 2016 | Published: 01 Nov 2016
© 2016 Gabriella Papastefanou, Anastasios Legakis, Igor Shogolev
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Papastefanou G, Legakis A, Shogolev I (2016) The Avian Collection of the Zoological Museum of the University of Athens (ZMUA). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e10598. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e10598
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The Zoological Museum of the University of Athens (ZMUA) was established in 1858. It is the oldest natural history museum of Greece. The museum began its operation with the acquisition of a core collection and has been expanding ever since. One of the most substantial parts of the museum's collection consists of the avian exhibits, originating from around the world.
Today, the avian collection consists of 2,948 specimens, preserved mostly through taxidermy, along with a significant number of eggs. The birds have been collected from around the world. A substantial part of the collection consists of individuals originating from Greece, Brazil, Canada and Australia. Having this valuable source of biogeographic information and a potential reserve of historical genetic diversity, ZMUA presents here the contents of the avian collection.
Aves, zoological collection, occurrence data, LifeWatchGreece
The Zoological Museum of the University of Athens (ZMUA) was established in 1858 and is the oldest museum of its kind in Greece. Starting from a core collection donated to the museum by the Physiographic Society that already existed since 1836 (
One of the most substantial parts of the museum's collection consists of the avian exhibits, originating from around the world. The oldest specimen dates back to 1806 while new inputs are purchased or donated up until today. The collection is mainly constituted by specimens collected primarily by the staff of the museum, donations or by fortuitous findings. The complete number of the birds in the collection today reaches 2,948 specimens preserved mainly through taxidermy or freezing. Avian skeletons are not included in this list.
The vast majority of the avian specimens in the ZMUA collection belong to Passeriformes (48%) followed by Charadriiformes (8.9%), Anseriformes (4.5%), Accipitriformes (4.4%) and Galliformes (4.1%) (Fig.
List of Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered species (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) available in the avian collection of ZMUA
Vulnerable |
Endangered |
Critically Endangered |
Acrocephalus paludicola |
Emberiza aureola |
Alcedo euryzona |
Anser erythropus |
Neophron percnopterus |
Didunculus strigirostris |
Aquila heliaca |
Phalacrocorax capensis |
Gyps rueppelli |
Aythya ferina |
Strigops habroptila |
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Balearica pavonina |
Trigonoceps occipitalis |
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Cacatua moluccensis |
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Catreus wallichii |
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Clangula hyemalis |
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Coeligena prunellei |
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Columba eversmanni |
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Dendroica cerulea |
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Euphagus carolinus |
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Fratercula arctica |
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Goura cristata |
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Heliodoxa gularis |
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Lophura erythrophthalma |
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Melanitta fusca |
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Neomorphus geoffroyi |
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Otis tarda |
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Platyrinchus leucoryphus |
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Podiceps auritus |
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Procnias nudicollis |
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Psittacus erithacus |
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Puffinus yelkouan |
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Pycnonotus zeylanicus |
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Pyrrhura cruentata |
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Ramphastos vitellinus |
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Streptopelia turtur |
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Syrmaticus reevesii |
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Thripophaga macroura |
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Touit surdus |
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Tragopan melanocephalus |
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Turdus feae |
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Tympanuchus cupido |
ZMUA also possess a significant number of avian eggs that have not been studied yet. This collection contains eggs from a wide taxonomic range and different localities in Greece and abroad, as well as a small number of bird nests.
ZMUA is a museum hosting specimens from around the world. Particularly, the avian collection contains 2,948 exhibits from 214 different localities.
Specimens deposited in the ZMUA collection are the result of collections made by the staff of the museum, donations and fortuitous findings. Therefore, no specific sampling protocol has been followed. Ιf in a certain sampling expedition a protocol was followed then this information is not available. Specimens are basically preserved through taxidermy. Newer deposits are stored in frozen condition.
Before deposition to the museum collection, associated information of the specimens has being sought. However, owing to frequent relocations of the Zoological Museum of the University of Athens and several misfortunate events, some of the exhibits and the relevant meta-data have been lost. Digitization, quality control checks and data analysis were made possible in the context of LifeWatchGreece project. All preserved information has been curated according to
The avian specimens deposited in the ZMUA collection have worldwide origin. Particularly, the exhibits’ origin is from 214 different localities that belong to 52 countries in all continents. Most of them were collected from Greece (34%), while the second largest collection comes from Brazil (23%). Furthermore, a substantial part of the collection comes from Canada (9%) and Australia (7%) (Fig.
Rank | Scientific Name | Common Name |
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class | Aves | Birds |
order | Accipitriformes | |
order | Apodiformes | |
order | Anseriformes | |
order | Bucerotiformes | |
order | Charadriiformes | |
order | Ciconiiformes | |
order | Columbiformes | |
order | Coraciiformes | |
order | Craciformes | |
order | Cuculiformes | |
order | Coliiformes | |
order | Falconiformes | |
order | Galbuliformes | |
order | Galliformes | |
order | Gaviiformes | |
order | Gruiformes | |
order | Musophagiformes | |
order | Passeriformes | |
order | Pelecaniformes | |
order | Phoenicopteriformes | |
order | Piciformes | |
order | Podicipediformes | |
order | Procellariiformes | |
order | Psittaciformes | |
order | Pteroclidiformes | |
order | Sphenisciformes | |
order | Strigiformes | |
order | Struthioniformes | |
order | Suliformes | |
order | Tinamiformes | |
order | Trogoniformes | |
order | Upupiformes |
The oldest specimen was collected in 1806, while the collection is still being enriched. Most of the exhibits for which the information is available, were collected during the 19th century (Fig.
Column label | Column description |
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identifiedBy | A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups, or organizations who assigned the Taxon to the subject. |
sex | The sex of the biological individual(s) represented in the Occurrence. This information is not always available. Specimens may not appear sexual dimorphism or sexual characteristics are indistinct. |
decimalLatitude | The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic center of a Location. All locations were manualy georeferenced based on the information provided in the locality label. Country borders and locality names at the time of the occurence were taken into account during the georeferencing. |
decimalLongitude | The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic center of a Location. All locations were manualy georeferenced based on the information provided in the locality label. Country borders and locality names at the time of the occurence were taken into account during the georeferencing. |
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters | The horizontal distance (in meters) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the Location. |
locality | The specific description of the place. This information is not available for all specimens. |
country | The name of the country in which the Location occurs. This information is not available for all specimens. In some cases the locality information is much broader than a country (e.g. Asia). Also, country borders and locality names during the date of the occurence may differ from the current state. |
locationRemarks | Comments or notes about the Location. Elaboration of the information were taken into account during the georeferencing. |
recordedBy | A list of names of people, groups, or organizations responsible for recording the original Occurrence. |
EventDate | The date-time or interval during which an Event occurred. |
TaxonRemarks | The taxon or name first given to the specimen. |
scientificNameID | An identifier for the nomenclatural details of a scientific name. |
ScientificName | The full scientific name. This information is not always available. Bad condition of the specimens may inhibit identification. |
Genus | The full scientific name of the genus in which the taxon is classified. |
SpecificEpithet | The name of the first or species epithet of the scientificName. This information is not available for all individuals. Bad condition of the specimens may hinder identification. |
scientificNameAuthorship | The authorship information for the scientificName formatted according to the conventions of the applicable nomenclaturalCode. |
Order | The full scientific name of the order in which the taxon is classified. |
Family | The full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified. |
Kingdom | The full scientific name of the kingdom in which the taxon is classified. |
Phylum | The full scientific name of the phylum or division in which the taxon is classified. |
Class | The full scientific name of the class in which the taxon is classified. |
nomenclaturalCode | The nomenclatural code (or codes in the case of an ambiregnal name) under which the scientificName is constructed. |
countryCode | The standard code for the country in which the Location occurs. |
DatasetName | The name identifying the data set from which the record was derived. |
fieldΝumber | An identifier given to the event in the field. |
occurenceID | An identifier for the Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the occurrence). |
catalogNumber | An identifier for the record within the data set or collection. |
institutionCode | The acronym in use by the institution having custody of the object or information referred to in the record. |
ownerInstitutionCode | The acronym in use by the institution having ownership of the object or information referred to in the record. |
preparations | The preservation method for a specimen. |
basisOfRecord | The specific nature of the data record. |
individualcount | The number of individuals represented present at the time of the Occurrence. |
collectioncode | The current state of a specimen with respect to the collection identified in collectionCode or collectionID. |
lifeStage | The life stage of the individual at the time the Occurrence was recorded. This information is not always available. Bad condition of the specimens may hinder lifestage determination. |
This work was supported by the LifeWatchGreece infrastructure (MIS 384676), funded by the Greek Government under the General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT), ESFRI Projects, National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF).
The dataset provides the list of avian specimens in the collection of the Zoological Museum of the University of Athens (ZMUA) along with all the rervant information availabe.