Italian natural history museums need specimen digitization and much more: a reply to Benvenuti et al.

We reply to the comments made by Benvenuti et al. (2022) about our paper on the Italian natural history museums and scientific collections and the need of a centralized hub and repository. While agreeing that digitization is a useful tool to valorize each museum and collection, we still believe that the suggestion of a centralized hub is valid and necessary. This would largely help in boosting coordination among museums, sharing personnel and resources, and in providing a place to deposit scientific collections that do not fit the scope of smaller museums.

Reconnecting research and natural history museums in Italy and the need of a national collection biorepository.

In Italy, differently from other countries, a national museum of natural history is not present. This absence is due, among other reasons, to its historical political fragmentation up to 1870, which led to the establishment of medium-sized museums, mostly managed by local administrations or universities. Moreover, a change of paradigm in biological research, at the beginning of the 20th century, contributed to privilege experimental studies in universities and facilitated the dismissal of descriptive and exploratory biology, which formed the basis of the taxonomic research carried out by natural history museums. Consequently, only a few museums have a provision of curatorial staff, space and material resources adequate to maintain their original mission of discovering the natural world, by conducting a regular research activity accompanied by field campaigns. The creation of a national research centre for the study of biodiversity, facilitating interconnections among the existing natural history museums could be a solution and is here supported, together with a centralised biorepository to host collections and vouchers, to the benefit of current and future taxonomic research and environmental conservation. Such an institution should find place and realisation within the recently proposed National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) planned within the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PNRR). Pending upon the creation of this new national centre, a network among the existing museums should coordinate their activities.

Overlooked mammal diversity and conservation priorities in Italy: Impacts of taxonomic neglect on a Biodiversity Hotspot in Europe.

For more than half a century, little taxonomic revisionary work has been directed towards extant European mammals so that the limits of most geographically widespread polytypic species remained scientifically untested. Occasionally, taxonomic changes have been proposed and several new species have been resurrected / discovered in the last decades mainly on the basis of genetic studies, often considered the only tool to establish objective species boundaries. Nevertheless, the precise details of species boundaries, subspecific variation and phylogenetic relationships remain unknown for several European mammal taxa. The inadequacies of outdated, incomplete taxonomic knowledge reach an extreme in southern Europe, and notably Italy, where cryptic species abound and specimen-based research is scanty. The state of mammalian taxonomic knowledge in Italy shows that Linnaean and Wallacean shortfalls are no means restricted to hyperdiverse, understudied tropics. They undermine our knowledge of temperate regions, with severe consequences for biodiversity conservation policies in Europe, where conservation assessments overlook significant endemic biodiversity. European mammalogy stands to benefit from an infusion of the tree-thinking philosophy that undergirds evolutionary theory and particularly phylogenetic methods systematics. Furthermore, it is important that taxonomic research be seen as a normal part of scientific advancement and of critical importance as the basis of a sound biodiversity conservation policy.

Phylogeography, mitochondrial DNA diversity, and demographic history of geladas (Theropithecus gelada).

The large-bodied, terrestrial primates in the tribe Papionini are among the most intensely studied animals in the world, yet for some members of this tribe we know comparatively little about their evolutionary history and phylogeography. Geladas (Theropithecus gelada Rüppell, 1835), endemic primates of the Ethiopian highlands, are largely unstudied both in genetic diversity and intrageneric phylogeny. Currently, a northern and central subspecies and one isolated southern population are recognized, of which the central is classified as Least Concern, the northern as Vulnerable, and the southern is not yet assessed. The distribution and taxonomy of the subspecies remain poorly defined. Here, we estimate the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity and phylogenetic relationships among gelada mtDNA lineages based on samples across the entire species range. We analysed 1.7 kb-long sequences of the mtDNA genome, spanning the cytochrome b gene and the hypervariable region I of the D-loop, derived from 162 faecal samples. We detected five major haplogroups or clades (south, central-1, central-2, north-1, north-2) which diverged between 0.67 and 0.43 million years ago, thus suggesting a rapid radiation, resulting in largely unresolved intrageneric phylogenetic relationships. Both, the northern and central demes contain two similarly valid haplogroups, each with little or no geographic segregation among respective haplogroups. Effective population sizes of the northern and central demes decreased during and after the last glacial maximum but remained stable for the southern deme, although on a very low level. The distribution of haplogroups within the geographic ranges of the putative gelada subspecies indicates that mtDNA sequence information does not allow reliable taxonomic inferences and thus is not sufficient for solving the taxonomic rank of the three demic populations, with the possible exception of the southern population. Nevertheless, due to the genetic differences all three populations deserve conservation efforts, in particular the smallest southern population.

The role of indirect evidence and traditional ecological knowledge in the discovery and description of new ape and monkey species since 1980.

Although empirical data are necessary to describe new species, their discoveries can be guided from the survey of the so-called circumstantial evidence (that indirectly determines the existence or nonexistence of a fact). Yet this type of evidence, generally linked to traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), is often disputed by field biologists due to its uncertain nature and, on account of that, generally untapped by them. To verify this behavior and the utility of circumstantial evidence, we reviewed the existing literature about the species of apes and monkeys described or rediscovered since January 1, 1980 and submitted a poll to the authors. The results show that circumstantial evidence has proved to be useful in 40.5% of the examined cases and point to the possibility that its use could speed up the process at the heart of the discovery and description of new species, an essential step for conservation purposes.

Impacts of taxonomic inertia for the conservation of African ungulate diversity: an overview.

We review the state of African ungulate taxonomy over the last 120 years, with an emphasis on the introduction of the polytypic species concept and the discipline's general neglect since the middle of the 20th century. We single out negative consequences of 'orthodox' taxonomy, highlighting numerous cases of neglect of threatened lineages, unsound translocations that led to lineage introgression, and cases of maladaptation to local conditions including parasitic infections. Additionally, several captive breeding programmes have been hampered by chromosome rearrangements caused by involuntary lineage mixing. We advocate that specimen-based taxonomy should regain its keystone role in mammal research and conservation biology, with its scientific values augmented with genomic evidence. While integration with molecular biology, ecology and behaviour is needed for a full understanding of ungulate alpha diversity, we stress that morphological diversity has been neglected despite its tremendous practical importance for some groups of 'utilizers' such as trophy hunters, wildlife tourists and conservationists. We conclude that there is no evidence that purported 'taxonomic inflation' has adverse effects on ungulate conservation: rather, it is taxonomic inertia that has such adverse effects. We stress that sound science, founded on robust taxonomy, should underpin effective sustainable management (hunting, ranching, captive breeding and reintroduction programmes) of this unique African natural resource.

Least speciose among the most speciose: Natural history correlates of monospecific and bispecific genera of Rodentia and Soricomorpha.

Monospecific and bispecific genera are of special concern as they represent unique phylogenetic/evolutionary trajectories within larger clades. In addition, as phylogenetically older taxa are supposed to be exposed to higher rarity and extinction risk, monospecific and bispecific genera may be intrinsically more prone to extinction risks than multispecies genera, although extinction risks also depend on the ecological and biological strategy of the species. Here, the distribution across biogeographical zones and the levels of threat to 2 speciose orders of mammals (monospecific and bispecific genera of Rodentia and Soricomorpha) are investigated in order to highlight major patterns at the worldwide scale. In Rodentia, 39.7% of the genera (n = 490) were monospecific and 17.9% were bispecific. In Soricomorpha, 44.4% of the total genera (n = 45) were monospecific and 15% were bispecific. There was a positive correlation between the number of monospecific genera and the total number of genera per family. Peaks of monospecific and bispecific genera richness were observed in Neotropical, Oriental and Afrotropical regions in rodents and in the Palearctic region in soricomorphs. Range size was significantly uneven across biogeographic region in rodents (with larger ranges in Nearctic and Oriental regions and smaller ranges in the Australian region), but there was no difference across biogeographic regions in terms of range size in soricomorphs. Most of the monospecific and bispecific genera occurred in forest habitat in both taxa. The frequency distribution of the monospecific and bispecific genera across IUCN categories did not differ significantly from the expected pattern using the total rodent genera and the multispecies genera.

Italian natural history museums on the verge of collapse?

The Italian natural history museums are facing a critical situation, due to the progressive loss of scientific relevance, decreasing economic investments, and scarcity of personnel. This is extremely alarming, especially for ensuring the long-term preservation of the precious collections they host. Moreover, a commitment in fieldwork to increase scientific collections and concurrent taxonomic research are rarely considered priorities, while most of the activities are addressed to public events with political payoffs, such as exhibits, didactic meetings, expositions, and talks. This is possibly due to the absence of a national museum that would have better steered research activities and overall concepts for collection management. We here propose that Italian natural history museums collaborate to instate a "metamuseum", by establishing a reciprocal interaction network aimed at sharing budgetary and technical resources, which would assure better coordination of common long-term goals and scientific activities.

Local knowledge and perceptions of chimpanzees in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau.

Our study concerns local knowledge and perceptions of chimpanzees among farming communities within Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. We submitted a survey questionnaire to 100 people living in four villages in the Park to enquire about their knowledge of chimpanzee ecology and human-chimpanzee interactions. Local farmers live in close contact with chimpanzees, consider them to be more similar to humans than any other species, and attribute special importance to them primarily due to expectations of tourism revenue. Interviewees' responses, as a function of gender, village, and age, were analyzed statistically using non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis). Age influenced responses significantly, while gender and village had no significant effect. Youngsters emphasized morphological aspects of human-chimpanzee similarities, while adults emphasized chimpanzee behavior and narratives about the shared history of humans and chimpanzees. Tourism, conservation, and crop raiding feature prominently in people's reports about chimpanzees. Local people's engagement with conservation and tourism-related activities is likely to allow them to manage not only the costs but also the benefits of conservation, and can in turn inform the expectations built upon tourism.

Theropithecus gelada distribution and variations related to taxonomy: history, challenges and implications for conservation.

Despite the uniqueness and importance of Theropithecus in palaeontological studies, little is known about the geographical and taxonomic differentiation in this genus, now restricted to the Ethiopian Highlands. Traditionally, the single living species Theropithecus gelada (Rüppell 1835) has been considered to comprise two subspecies: the nominate T. g. gelada in the northern highlands, and T. g. obscurus Heuglin 1863, from latitude 12 degrees to 9 degrees N in the south. Both the distributions and the physical characters of these two subspecies are poorly defined, and even in recent major taxonomic revisions, the validity of T. g. obscurus has been questioned. The history of gelada taxonomy and museum collections is reviewed here, and results are compared with the biogeography and major physical features of the Ethiopian Highlands. It is concluded that major gaps exist in our knowledge of the differentiation and distributions of Theropithecus populations. Following this literature review, a series of priority regions for taxonomic research and conservation are identified. These include the gathering of data on (1) geladas inhabiting the Wollo Region, from where obscurus was originally described; (2) the identity of geladas of the Tigray Region northeast of the Tacazzé River, and their current conservation status; (3) the identity of the Shewa population, usually assigned to obscurus; and (4) the identity and current status of geladas found northeast and south of Lake Tana, including Gojjam.