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Museomics, the Extended Specimen and Collectomics – how to frame and name the diversity of information linked to specimens in natural history collections

M. Kapun,Martin Schwentner,Elisabeth Haring,N. Akkari,Andreas Kroh,L. Kruckenhauser,A. Palandačič,Katrin Vohland

Published 2025 in Natural History Collections and Museomics

ABSTRACT

In light of recent technological advances – in fields such as computer science, imaging technologies, and molecular analysis methods – the possibilities for studying biological museum specimens and linking information across disciplines have expanded exponentially in recent years. In particular, scientific disciplines operating on the scale of so-called -omics technologies, originally developed in molecular biology, have found their way into the museum realm. This development has led to a proliferation of neologisms aimed at describing comprehensive approaches for analyzing museum specimens and collections with the help of large-scale datasets. Among these terms, “museomics” has become a frequently used, albeit rather loosely defined, synonym for a wide range of large-scale, integrative scientific approaches that are centered on, or incorporate, museum specimens. In this article, we aim to provide an overview of the most commonly used key terms, examine their conceptual interrelations, and present a literature-based survey of their usage. We advocate for using three terms at different hierarchical levels: (1) museomics for analytical approaches using biomolecules on museum specimen; (2) the extended specimen concept linking voucher specimens with diverse physical, digital, and contextual information; and (3) collectomics linking the data of the extended specimen with quantitative datasets from other domains of research. A key prerequisite for this linkage is the unambiguous assignment of data to the corresponding specimen using a Persistent Identifier (PID). Finally, we conclude the paper by reflecting on the current approaches and initiatives adopted at the Natural History Museum Vienna, emphasizing the importance of adopting a museum-wide strategy for developing extended specimen datasets using standardized data formats in accordance with Open Science principles.

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