Mammal collections of the Western Hemisphere: A survey and directory of collections

As a periodic assessment of the mammal collection resource, the Systematic Collections Committee (SCC) of the American Society of Mammalogists undertakes decadal surveys of the collections held in the Western Hemisphere. The SCC surveyed 429 collections and compiled a directory of 395 active collections containing 5,275,155 catalogued specimens. Over the past decade, 43 collections have been lost or transferred and 38 new or unsurveyed collections were added. Growth in number of total specimens, expansion of genomic resource collections, and substantial gains in digitization and web accessibility were documented, as well as slight shifts in proportional representation of taxonomic groups owing to increasingly balanced geographic representation of collections relative to previous surveys. While we find the overall health of Western Hemisphere collections to be adequate in some areas, gaps in spatial and temporal coverage and clear threats to long-term growth and vitality of these resources have also been identified. Major expansion of the collective mammal collection resource along with a recommitment to appropriate levels of funding will be required to meet the challenges ahead for mammalogists and other users, and to ensure samples are broad and varied enough that unanticipated future needs can be powerfully addressed. © 2018 The Author(s)

Barn Owl (Tyto alba) Predation on Big Brown Bats (Eptesicus fuscus) in Pennsylvania

Diet of the Barn Owl, Tyto alba, was determined through examination of pellets collected from a roost site in Port Trevorton, Snyder County, Pennsylvania (40°42'26"N, 76°51'58"W). Remains of a Big Brown Bat, Eptesicus fuscus, were positively identified in one of the 80 pellets from our site. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of a Barn Owl preying on a bat in Pennsylvania

Diversity of Life

The Diversity of Life web has been in the making for the past 20 years. It began as a set of synoptic descriptions of phyla as they had been given in the standard text by Margulis and Schwartz (1982, 1988, and 1998), Five Kingdoms. Work in the areas of microbiology, protozoology, phycology, zoology, mycology, and botany began to coalesce into a collective understanding that the five kingdom system was not satisfactory. Thus, through a review of the pertinent literature, we began to reconfigure the hierarchical taxonomic scheme to use as an alternate text. The introduction is a brief description of the phylum with some emphasis on economically important taxa, unique structures, and aspects of life history. This section is supported with some citations and illustrations. The synoptic description of the phylum is an attempt to present the salient morphological, biochemical, physiological, ultrastructural, and life history characters in the same way for phyla in a particular group. The goal is to provide a mechanism by which broad groups of taxa can be compared directly. The systematics section is a brief text that covers the current understanding of the phylum, its taxonomic structure, and currently used alternatives. The systematic treatment is our interpretation of the literature for that group and is under constant revision. The hierarchical classification of the phylum is the higher taxa of all phyla to order (class for most animal groups). However, it is uneven in its treatment. The vertebrates are given to family as are the conifers and flowering plants

An insect-eating bat (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from the Pleistocene of Argentina

Compared with other mammals, the fossil record for bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) is sparse. Among the reasons proposed for this are lack of fossilization, poor preservation of bats bones, and bias introduced by collecting techniques (Arroyo Cabrales 1992).Fil: Iudica, Carlos A.. University Of Florida. Florida Museum Of History; Estados UnidosFil: Arroyo Cabrales, Joaquín. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; MéxicoFil: McCarthy, Timothy. J.. Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Estados UnidosFil: Pardiñas, Ulises Francisco J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin