Searching the collection

Searching for specimens

Our collections can be searched online through VertNet, iDigBio, or GBIF. Our institution code is LACM and our collection code is Birds or Mammals.

*Note, currently our VertNet server has not been updating since 2019. To search for any recent specimens, please use GBIF or iDigBio.

For Ornithology, our Shiny app has the most up-to-date information on our collections data.

Searching for specimens on VertNet

Written by: Young Ha Suh, September 5th 2023

*See the official search guide here: http://www.vertnet.org/resources/advancedsearchoptionsguide.html

Head on to http://vertnet.org/

Click the SEARCH tab to get started.

Or check out the LACM Vertebrate Collection on VertNet.

Quick search using institution code and species name

If you want to look up specimens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, use the institution code LACM and combine with the species name to get the full list.

Occurrences

You can click on an occurrence to get more information about that specimen.

In this example, the specimen (LACM 112041) is the skeleton of a female Buteo jamaicensis collected Nov 20th, 2000 from Huntington Park, Los Angeles Co., California.

Advanced Search

From the main search bar, select advanced search options to apply additional filters relating to your search.

For instance, you can specify sex, year, and locality. Remember to select "LACM" for Institution code and select "PreservedSpecimen" for basisofRecord.

You can specify specimen type by typing in keywords in the All these words field.

e.g., add "skeleton" to None of these words to exclude skeletons in your search.

Searching for specimens on GBIF

Written by: Young Ha Suh, September 5th 2023

*This is not an official guide provided by GBIF

Head on to https://www.gbif.org/

To search for individual records of specimens, click on the OCCURRENCES tab above the search bar on the main page. You will be directed to a page full of lists of all the specimens uploaded to GBIF.

Occurrence page

If you click on a record, it will have all the information pertaining to it. For instance, what is the species scientific name? Which dataset does it belong to? Where and when was it collected? Are there any additional reference numbers or measurements?

When you scroll down to the Occurrence tab, it will also show what the specimen actually is.

For this example, this specimen (LACM 122789) is the study skin of a female Tyrannus verticalis with an associated frozen tissue sample (LAF 9600). This specimen was collected collected on April 17th, 2021 in West Los Angeles.

Set Filters

When going through datasets, you will want to set up filters to look for exactly what you want:

What species?
From where and when were they collected?
Which institutions house them?

The basic filter is set to "Present" occurrences. You can always know how many filters are set by looking at the number by the trashcan icon (which you can click to remove any filters).

For specimens, make sure to select "Preserved specimen" for the Basis of record filter.

Add Filters - species

You can add filters by entering different values in the set fields.

For instance, you can look up all instances of Red-tailed Hawks by typing "Buteo jamaicensis" in the Scientific name field.

Add Filters - taxonomic groups

Instead of typing in species, you can look at clades.

Click the Scientific name field and it will show the taxonomic drop down list starting from Animalia. This is a clickable field and you can go down the taxonomic hierarchy to find the appropriate clade/group you are looking for.

Add Filters - year

You can also set when the specimen was collected.

For example, maybe you want the list of Red-tailed Hawks from 1981 to 1999. Adjust the Year field by moving the sliders to your desired dates.

Add Filters - institution

One other important filter may be Institution - where the specimen is stored.

If you want to look up specimens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, use the institution code LACM and you'll get a list of those specimens.

Alternatively, use this link to reach our institution's vertebrate database.

Add Filters - specimen type

Perhaps one of the most important but underutilized filter is specimen type which is determined by your study. Are you looking for study skins or skeletons?

Specimen types are normally recorded as Preparations within the occurence page. You can specify the specimen type by using those keywords in the search bar (e.g., "skeleton") while setting up filters.

For example, this search yields all Tyrannus skeletons within the LACM Vertebrates collection.

Explore by publisher

Similar to searching by Institution, you can directly use the Publisher tab to search for occurrences within the publisher.

From the main GBIF page, select PUBLISHER.

Then, you can search for individual institutions. For example, you can type "Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County" to see our publisher and the 6 datasets that are associated with it. Select the 6 dataset tab.

You will then see the results of 6 datasets. Click the LACM Vertebrate Collection to look specifically at our collection.

LACM Vertebrate Collection

This page provides information on the dataset itself:

How many occurrences are there?
When was it published?
What is the doi?

Here, you can also access all the occurrences by clicking on the green OCCURRENCES tab.

Helpful tips

Keep notes on what filters you use when getting your list of specimens.
- You want to make sure you are consistent in search effort throughout your project across species/institutions.

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