GB Magazine October 2022 | Page 60

Biodiversity

Why Do Museums Collect So Much Stuff ?

Many scientists use The Nat ’ s endangered species collection to hone their identification skills .

When it comes to nature , San

Diego County is a special place . It has canyons and mountains , coastal cliffs and chapparal , deserts and rivers - and each of these habitats is full of life . Despite the millions of people living here , we have more unique
60 GBSAN . COM | OCTOBER 2022
It is not enough to simply collect specimens from nature . They must be carefully preserved and documented too .
animal and plant species than any other county in the contiguous United States .
To better understand and protect this amazing place we all call home- as well as our neighbor in nature , the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico- scientists at The Nat have been growing and revisiting their natural history collection for nearly 150 years . Like a library for biodiversity , this repository of specimens supports the work of their
PHOTO CREDITS : STACY KECK AND SAN DIEGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM