Systematic scientific collection of objects for the study of nature or of the human history
A scientific collection is a collection of items that are preserved, catalogued, and managed for the purpose of scientific study.[1]
Scientific collections dealing specifically with organisms plants, fungi, animals, insects and their remains, may also be called natural history collections or biological collections.[2] The latter may contain either living stocks or preserved repositories of biodiversity specimens and materials.[3]
Prominent uses of scientific collections include the systematic description and identification of biological species, the study and prediction of long-term historical trends (including impacts of climate change), the dating and analysis of historical objects (e.g. via wood samples and ice cores with annual rings), and the maintenance of teaching resources.[1][4]
Preparation of a plant for a HerbariumOrnithological collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Natural history of Harvard Museum of Natural History. Museum collections are tremendous repositories of specimens and data of many sorts, including phenotypes, tissue samples, vocal recordings, geographic distributions, parasites, and diet.View in a Seedbank at the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station