Accession number
A unique permanent identifier assigned to a specimen when it enters a collection. It never changes, even if the specimen is moved, re-identified or re-housed.
Glossary
Natural history collecting glossary
37 terms used by collectors, curators and researchers when cataloguing minerals, fossils, shells, insects, herbarium material, meteorites and taxidermy. Each definition starts with a direct answer.
Acquisition
The event by which a specimen enters a collection, whether by purchase, gift, exchange, bequest or fieldwork. Acquisition date and source are core provenance fields.
Provenance
The documented history of a specimen: where it was collected, who owned it, and how it passed from hand to hand. Good provenance underpins both scientific and legal value.
Locality
The geographic place where a specimen was collected, ideally recorded from the broadest level (country) down to mine, quarry, outcrop or GPS coordinates.
Type specimen
The specimen that formally anchors the published name of a species. Type material is the scientific reference point for that name and is never dispersed casually.
Holotype
The single specimen designated by the author as the name-bearing type of a species. There is only one holotype per name.
Paratype
An additional specimen cited in the original species description alongside the holotype. Paratypes support the holotype but do not replace it.
Mohs hardness
A relative scratch-resistance scale for minerals from 1 (talc) to 10 (diamond). It is comparative, not linear, and is measured by scratch testing.
Matrix
The host rock or surrounding material a specimen sits in. Leaving a specimen on matrix often preserves more scientific and aesthetic context than trimming it free.
Habit
The characteristic external shape a mineral crystal or aggregate takes, such as prismatic, botryoidal, acicular, massive or dendritic.
Crystal system
The symmetry class of a crystalline mineral: cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, hexagonal, trigonal, monoclinic or triclinic.
Luster
How light reflects from a mineral surface, described as metallic, vitreous, resinous, pearly, silky, greasy or earthy.
Streak
The colour of a mineral's powder when rubbed on unglazed porcelain. Streak is often more diagnostic than the colour of the specimen itself.
Cleavage
The tendency of a mineral to break along flat crystallographic planes, described by quality and direction.
Pseudomorph
A mineral that has replaced another while keeping the original's external form, for example goethite after pyrite.
Taxonomy
The hierarchical system of scientific classification — kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species — used to name and group biological specimens.
Binomial name
The two-part scientific name of a species, made of genus and species epithet, conventionally set in italics, for example Conus marmoreus.
Determination
The act of identifying a specimen to a taxonomic name, together with the name of the person who did it and the date. Redeterminations are recorded, not overwritten.
Herbarium sheet
A pressed and dried plant specimen mounted on archival paper with its collecting label, forming the standard unit of a botanical collection.
Taxidermy mount
A preserved animal skin arranged over a form to present a lifelike posture. Mounts require conservation-grade climate and pest control.
Study skin
A preserved specimen prepared flat for scientific comparison rather than display, common in ornithology and mammalogy collections.
Pinning
The practice of mounting an insect on an entomological pin with its data labels beneath it, so specimen and data can never be separated.
Spreading board
A grooved board used to set the wings of butterflies and moths in a standard position while they dry.
Unit tray
A small open tray inside a drawer that groups related specimens and lets a curator rearrange a collection without handling individual specimens.
Meteorite classification
The formal grouping of a meteorite as a chondrite, achondrite, stony-iron or iron, with subtype, based on mineralogy, texture and isotopic analysis.
TKW (Total Known Weight)
The total documented mass recovered for a given meteorite fall or find. Low TKW generally means higher rarity.
Fall vs find
A fall is a meteorite observed entering the atmosphere and then recovered; a find is one recovered without an observed fall.
Fossil formation
The named rock unit a fossil came from, such as the Morrison Formation. Formation plus geological period places a fossil in time and space.
Geological period
A division of the geological time scale, such as Cambrian, Jurassic or Pleistocene, used to date fossil specimens.
Stratigraphy
The study of rock layers and their order. Recording the stratigraphic level of a fossil gives it far more scientific value than a bare locality name.
Conchology
The study and collecting of mollusc shells, with its own conventions for recording collecting depth, habitat and live-taken versus beach-collected material.
Condition report
A dated written record of a specimen's physical state, including damage, repairs and restoration, used for insurance, loans and conservation.
Deaccession
The formal, documented removal of a specimen from a collection by sale, transfer, exchange or disposal.
Loan
The temporary transfer of a specimen to another institution or collector for research or exhibition, recorded with dates, conditions and a return receipt.
Darwin Core
An international metadata standard for sharing biodiversity specimen and occurrence data, used by museums and research aggregators. Museumica exports to Darwin Core.
Catalogue number
The working reference a collector prints on labels and uses day to day. It may follow a personal scheme and can differ from a formal accession number.
Repository
The institution or private collection that permanently holds a specimen and is cited in publications referring to it.