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List of contents
Ornithological Specimens in the 21st Century. Non-Destructive, In-Situ Analysis of Avian Plumage Pigments Using Raman Spectroscopy. From Microscopic Feather Structure to Whole-Organism Display Behavior: Using Multiple Specimen Types to Uncover the Private Courtship Signals of Parotia wahnesi (Paradiseidae). The Integrated Evolution of Behavioral and Morphological Novelties in Mankins (Pipridae) as Revealed by Digital and Physical Natural History Specimens. Combining Museum and Media Collections to Study Multimodal Sexual Signaling and Acoustic Adaptations in Tanagers (Thraupidae). Of Songs and Specimens: Using Vouchered Behaviors to Examine Song Evolution in Avian Radiations. Museum-Based Stable Isotope Studies: Guiding Principles, Sampling Strategies, and the Past, Present, and Future of Foraging Ecology in the Endangered Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis). Prospects for Using Target Enrichment to Collect Sequence Data from Museum Specimens. Flight Ability Drives Genome Size Reduction in Birds. Using Research Specimens for Comparative Studies of Dispersal in Birds. The Evolution of Scientific Collecting: Comprehensive Biodiversity Surveys of Avian Parasites and Pathogens Can Produce Important Baseline Data and Lead to Novel Eco-Evolutionary Insights. Collecting the Total Specimen Package: Research and Educational Opportunities for Museum Expeditions. VertNet and Big Data: Visualizing Birds in the Cloud.
About the author
Michael Webster is the Robert G. Engel Professor of Ornithology, and also Director of the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. He has served as an Associate Editor for four different scientific journals: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2000- 2004), Evolution (2004-2006 and 2008-2010), Emu - Austral Ornithology (2007-present), and Animal Behaviour (2011-present). Webster is also Director of the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the world’s largest scientific collection of biodiversity media.
Summary
The book demonstrates the power of ornithological collections to address key research questions at global scales through emerging new technologies, analytical techniques, and case studies. The book includes developing methods for making biological collections more accessible and "usable" for ornithological researchers.
