Working in the herbarium

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working as a behind-the-scenes botany volunteer in the National Museum of Natural History. My volunteer work has involved working in the herbarium (one of the largest collections of plants in the world!) and even going to the zoo to take pictures of leaves to use for a plant identification iPhone app. It has been pretty fun working with botany and I am learning a lot about working with dry botanical herbarium specimens. This work hearkens back to what I used to do as an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara, working with botanical specimens in the Museum of Systematics.

Here at the NMNH herbarium, I have been pulling specimens for Carlos to use in his research (to sample for genetic analysis). This involves finding each species he needs (that is found on the altitudinal transect from La Selva to Volcan Barva) and then finding plants that have been collected from one of the localities he will also be collecting beetles and plants from. Once I find specimens that will work for his research, I pack them up (by species) in little bundles with cardboard and cotton string that Carlos can save in his own cabinet.

I am also planning to start my own research soon in the mammalogy department here -- it is really exciting! I looked at some agouti specimens yesterday and my mind is busy whirring with ideas about phylogenetics, pelage (fur) color comparisons, and other things~