BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="jurek" data-source="post: 3314724" data-attributes="member: 3357">Perhaps museums could change how they obtain specimens?- encourage public and birdwatchers to deposit casually found dead birds in collections. It is common to find dead birds in the field, and they could contribute to scientific research instead of just being left to rot. - encourage preserving feathers and similar DNA samples of live and dead birds, as long as it is possible to do it ethically.Today, detailed taxonomic study on a whole genome can be done on one feather of a living bird. In few years, such studies will almost certainly be very cheap and easy, because DNA sequencing in medicine is quickly developing.One problem are restrictive laws which sometimes sweepingly regulate all animal specimens or all biological material. They are not in practice applied to things like bird feathers, but they put unnecessary confusion, don't match current reality and should be changed.(I am waiting when somebody finds a new species of a bird from DNA sample in a feather, pellet or similar, with no knowledge how the whole bird looks like).</blockquote>