Biology Collections: A Database of Dead Organisms

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As I've mentioned, only trained people can hold live sloths, so I was excited to get to hold a taxidermy one!
The biology collections in Costa Rica are very different than at the University of Kansas- there are no jungle cats where I'm from!
Standing in front of the "wet" collection shelves, containing organisms best preserved in alcohol
All discovered species are classified on a huge tree of life, which also helps biologists organize the collections from kingdom to an individual specie
People doing research expect to find specimen exactly where they put them, so I had to be careful to look and not touch
Another way that species can be organized are little tags, describing where, when and by who each specimen was collected
The biology collections also contain animals and furs taken from people who had them illegally, so they can be used for education and research
Costa Rica is known for its diversity of organisms, especially insects and beetles

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