The Extended Specimen highlights the research potential for ornithological specimens, and is meant to encourage ornithologists poised to initiate a renaissance in collections-based ornithological research. Contributors illustrate how collections and specimens are used in novel ways by adopting emerging new technologies and analytical techniques. Case studies use museum specimens and emerging and non-traditional types of specimens, which are developing new methods for making biological collections more accessible and "usable" for ornithological researchers. Thus, book documents the power of ornithological collections to address key research questions of global importance.
- Ornithological Specimens in the 21st Century
- Non-Destructive, In-Situ Analysis of Avian Plumage Pigments Using Raman Spectroscopy
- From Microscopic Feather Structure to Whole-Organism Display Behavior: Using Multiple Specimen Types to Uncover the Private Courtship Signals of Parotia wahnesi (Paradiseidae)
- The Integrated Evolution of Behavioral and Morphological Novelties in Mankins (Pipridae) as Revealed by Digital and Physical Natural History Specimens
- Combining Museum and Media Collections to Study Multimodal Sexual Signaling and Acoustic Adaptations in Tanagers (Thraupidae)
- Of Songs and Specimens: Using Vouchered Behaviors to Examine Song Evolution in Avian Radiations
- Museum-Based Stable Isotope Studies: Guiding Principles, Sampling Strategies, and the Past, Present, and Future of Foraging Ecology in the Endangered Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis)
- Prospects for Using Target Enrichment to Collect Sequence Data from Museum Specimens
- Flight Ability Drives Genome Size Reduction in Birds
- Using Research Specimens for Comparative Studies of Dispersal in Birds
- The Evolution of Scientific Collecting: Comprehensive Biodiversity Surveys of Avian Parasites and Pathogens Can Produce Important Baseline Data and Lead to Novel Eco-Evolutionary Insights
- Collecting the Total Specimen Package: Research and Educational Opportunities for Museum Expeditions
- VertNet and Big Data: Visualizing Birds in the Cloud