Bird type specimens in the AfricaMuseum (RMCA)

Occurrence
Latest version published by Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium on Nov 26, 2024 Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium
Publication date:
26 November 2024
License:
CC-BY 4.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 131 records in English (18 KB) - Update frequency: unknown
Metadata as an EML file download in English (9 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (10 KB)

Description

The name-bearing types at the RMCA ornithological collection are represented by these unique records: 89 holotypes, 5 lectotypes and 36 syntypes compose the most important part among the 988 type specimens of birds kept in Tervuren. This types’ dataset was based on a digitally updated catalogue (Louette et al. 2010), that was a revision of an earlier detailed inventory (Louette et al. 2002). Thanks to recent comparisons by Louette (2023), we hereby highlight actualised taxonomic findings: - Of 25 bird species, accepted by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the AfricaMuseum holds the type specimens, including 12 holotypes and almost all syntypes which are listed in this updated dataset. - A few other birds that have not yet been recognised as distinct species by the IOC (2021), are additionally discussed, of which the three holotypes are indicated here as incipient species in taxon remarks. - Besides, many taxa are listed as accepted subspecies by the IOC for which the RMCA has type material. - Moreover, three birds that were originally considered to be species and once described by holotypes, appear to be melanistic morphs of already known species belonging to other taxa. Paratypes are excluded from this dataset, since only the name-bearing types were photographed and digitised through an earlier project, partially funded by Belspo. Initially, this data mobilisation was situated as a paradigm case in the experimentally Semantic Web-based Thematic European Reference Network Application (STERNA, http://www.sterna-net.eu) that aimed to develop a capacious database on birds according to the objectives of a European Digital Library (EDL) and its portal Europeana (www.europeana.eu). References: Louette, M., D. Meirte, A. Louage & A. Reygel, 2002. Type specimens of birds in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. Doc. Zool. (Mus. R. Afr. Centr.) 26, 105 pp. Louette, M., D. Meirte, A. Louage & A. Reygel, 2010. Type specimens of birds in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. Revised Edition. Zool. Doc. Online Series (R. Mus. Centr. Afr.) 332 pp. Louette, M., 2023. The bird species from the type collection. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. Collections of the RMCA. 180 pp. International Ornithological Committee http://www.worldbirdnames.org/ especially IOC 2021 World Bird List 11.2. doi: 10.14344/IOC.ML.11.2

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 131 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

GBIF Occurrence Download 10.15468/dl.9sdpa5

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 7baada30-f762-11e1-a439-00145eb45e9a.  Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

Keywords

Occurrence

External data

The resource data is also available in other formats

Darwin Core Archive https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/download/request/0056858-231120084113126.zip UTF-8 Darwin Core Archive

Contacts

Michel Louette
  • Originator
  • Ornithologist
Royal Museum for Central Africa
Stijn Cooleman
  • Metadata Provider
  • Biodiversity data officer
Belgian Biodiversity Platform
BE
Franck Theeten
  • Metadata Provider
  • Project manager, databases and web applications
Royal Museum for Central Africa
Tervuren
BE
Didier Van den Spiegel
  • Point Of Contact
  • Head of Collections
Royal Museum For central Africa
Tervuren
BE
Alain Reygel
  • Technical contact
Royal Museum for Central Africa
BE

Geographic Coverage

Sub-Saharan Africa

Bounding Coordinates South West [-12.65, -11.65], North East [8.65, 44.65]

Taxonomic Coverage

No Description available

Class Aves

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Louette, M., D. Meirte, A. Louage & A. Reygel, 2002. Type specimens of birds in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. Doc. Zool. (Mus. R. Afr. Centr.) 26, 105 pp.
  2. Louette, M., D. Meirte, A. Louage & A. Reygel, 2010. Type specimens of birds in the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. Revised Edition. Zool. Doc. Online Series (R. Mus. Centr. Afr.) 332 pp.
  3. Louette, M., 2023. The bird species from the type collection. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. Collections of the RMCA. 180 pp.
  4. International Ornithological Committee http://www.worldbirdnames.org/ especially IOC 2021 World Bird List 11.2. doi: 10.14344/IOC.ML.11.2

Additional Metadata

Alternative Identifiers 0056858-231120084113126
7baada30-f762-11e1-a439-00145eb45e9a
https://biocase.africamuseum.be/ipt_rmca/resource?r=rmca_bird_type_specimens