Condition of the Sasaki/Albatross Cephalopod Collection at the U.S. National Museum of Natural History

Abstract

The Sasaki collection at the United States National Museum of Natural History (USNM) comprises cephalopods examined by Madoka Sasaki following the 1906 expedition in the northwest Pacific Ocean of the U.S. Fisheries Steamer Albatross. Over a century after this expedition, the specimens in this collection were recurated, their condition was assessed, and the type specimens were photographed. This collection nominally includes 58 type specimens in 21 taxa (species or subspecies). In the type collection, there was 1 specimen in Very Good condition, 24 Good specimens, 19 Fair specimens, 4 Poor specimens, 2 Very Poor specimens, 6 lots On Loan, and 2 lots known previously not to be extant. Therefore, of the types, 43% are in Good or better condition, and less than a 20% are in Poor condition or worse. In addition to the type specimens, Sasaki identified 323 nontype specimens in 42 taxa. In the non-type collection, there were 42 Very Good specimens, 196 Good specimens, 37 Fair specimens, 10 Poor specimens, 9 Very Poor specimens, 3 Empty Jar lots, 19 Missing lots, 1 Not Extant lot, and 6 Not Cataloged lots. Therefore, the majority of the specimens (61%) in the Sasaki non-type collection are in Good condition and less than 15% are Poor, Very Poor, Empty Jars, Missing, Not Extant, or Not Cataloged. These final four categories, explained in the paper, comprise 29 non-type specimens in 16 taxa listed in Sasaki’s taxonomic publications but not currently found in the USNM collections. bers begin with USNM) at the Smithsonian Institution, now known as the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). In 2015, the triennial meeting of the Cephalopod International Advisory Council (CIAC) included a workshop on the taxonomic work of Sasaki. In preparation for the workshop, this project recurated and assessed the condition of the specimens in the Sasaki collection at NMNH and photographically documented the type specimens from this collection, in accordance with the Smithsonian’s goal of digitizing large portions of the NMNH Invertebrate Zoology collection. Materials and Methods All of the Sasaki specimens from the wet and dry mollusk collections at NMNH and its Museum Support Center were examined, as were loan records. The Sasaki wet specimens are preserved in 50% isopropyl alcohol; the alcohol in jars was topped off or changed out completely in jars where the alcohol had become discolored. Figure 1.—Madoka Sasaki, who first identified the cephalopod specimens of the 1906 expedition of the U.S. Steamer Albatross in the northwestern Pacific Ocean; his identifications, published in 1917, 1920, and 1929, included newlydescribed species. (Undated image, courtesy of Tsunemi Kubodera, Ian Gleadall, and Yasunori Sakurai). Gaskets and jars were replaced if the lots were losing (or at risk of losing) alcohol through evaporation. All type specimens were photographed (along with a few lots containing non-type specimens). For each lot, photographs were taken of the labels, of all of the specimens and removed structures together, and of each specimen individually (from two different angles). Figure 2 compares some of these recent photographs (taken in 2015) with original photographs of the same specimens taken in the early twentieth century.