The role of historical research in the study of primatological collections: case-studies from the Museo di Antropologia "G. Sergi", Rome

Abstract

A recently edited volume on the Italian primatological collections highlighted a rather difficult situation, often characterised by a preponderance of old and scarcely documented specimens. It is often ignored that a detailed historical research, through archival and bibliographic sources, can greatly improve the scientific value of collections providing critical taxonomic information. The primatological collection of the Museo di Antropologia “G. Sergi”, La Sapienza University (Roma) is mainly composed of osteological material, with no original labels. During the first half of the 20th century and earlier, the collections in Roma were studied by many zoologists and anthropologists (like Antonio Carruccio, Gioacchino Sera, Giuseppe and Sergio Sergi, Ugo Vram). These old studies are now of fundamental importance in order to discover details about scarcely documented specimens. Thus, cataloguing and computerisation of vouchured collections data should always be associated with archival and bibliographical research.