If you’re ophidiophobic, look away now. Because of the University of Michigan’s Zoology department is swimming in snakes! And other specimens, but largely snakes. After a generous donation, the university now owns one of the most extensive collections of preserved reptiles and amphibians in the US. Possibly on the planet!
Greg Schneider, research museum collections manager for the reptiles and amphibians department, is overjoyed with the extensive collection. There’s a significant benefit to studying the behaviors and habitats of reptiles and amphibians. Believe it or not, they’re one of the first creatures of study for when an environment begins to suffer. According to Schneider, they’re “very good biological indicators of the health of the environment and ecosystems.”
A Generously Slimy, Scaly Contribution
This is because of the unique way in which reptiles and amphibians interact with their habitats. Amphibians, for instance, breathe through their skin. Which means their exposure to abnormalities in the oxygen of an environment is extremely high. Something Schneider says can give scientists a leg-up on knowing if something is going wrong. “…the worldwide occurrences of amphibian declines and deformities could be an early warning that some of our ecosystems, even seemingly pristine ones, are seriously out of balance.”
The generous donation comes from a lifetime of cataloguing from Oregon state profs Lynne Houck and Stevan Arnold. And Schneider has his work cut out for him. He now begins the laborious process of archiving roughly 30,000 jarred specimens. Which gives the university a grand total of at least 65,000 species on file and 70,000 at most. Which is more than Washington’s Smithsonian, New York’s Museum of Natural History, and the University of Kansas.
But the amount isn’t what’s important to Schneider. What the study of these species could tell us is the real goal.
