The purpose of this research was to understand, demonstrate and divulge
the importance of biological scientific collections of vertebrates in Brazil, in order to
provide an overview of the current situation of these collections, their participation in
society for the insertion of values, preservation of culture, formation professional,
research and diffusion of knowledge. In order to search for information needed to
understand the reality of the country's scientific collections, questionnaires were sent
via e-mail to the Institutions, in addition to telephone contact and search of data on its
own websites, or platforms for accessing data from online collections. The survey
showed 117 representative collections of the 5 classes of vertebrates, linked to 44
Institutions. The size of the collections was specified in number of specimens or lots,
species, genera, families, orders, endangered species and type species. About the
largest collections in each group were detailed information more specific and pertinent
to the understanding of their performance. However, major gaps still exist, mainly
related to the dissemination of data on the collections, in addition to internal problems
such as lack of financial resources, infrastructure that falls short of actual needs, lack
of specialized human resources, among others, but it is believed that this situation can
be resolved through active policies and projects of actions that encourage
improvements in these aspects. It is hoped that this research served to highlight the
importance of these collections, their fundamental role in several areas of knowledge
and to alert about their indispensable needs to offer more effective contributions to
society.
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