Description
The Angolan herpetological collections of the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical (IICT), currently housed in the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (MUHNAC) are part of the scientific collections of the Universidade de Lisboa (UL), Portugal. This set comprises a total of 673 records (673 specimens), representing 65 taxa (20 amphibians and 45 reptiles). These were collected between 1957 and 1972, either by targeted surveys promoted by the IICT or by fortuitous collections and donations by private individuals and researchers.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 673 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Ceríaco LMP, Marques MP, Bauer, AM, Heinicke M, Blackburn DC (2018): Angolan Herpetological Collection - IICT. v1. National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon. Dataset/Occurrence. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=angolan_herpetological_collection_iict&v=1.0
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: ae52efd5-bfd4-4a81-ba12-813cace064f3. Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Portugal.
Keywords
Angola; Moxico; Amphibia; Reptilia; Specimens; Museums; Portuguese collections; Specimen
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Curator ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0591-9978
- Metadata Provider ●
- Curator ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Author
- Author
- Author
Geographic Coverage
The Republic of Angola (excluding Cabinda enclave)
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-18.646, 11.602], North East [-3.864, 24.785] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
The dataset comprises representatives of 24 families, 41 genus, 65 species and one subspecies of Amphibians and Reptiles.
| Class | Amphibia, Reptilia |
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| Order | Squamata, Chelonii, Anura |
| Family | Arthroleptidae, Brevicipitidae, Bufonidae, Hemisotidae, Hyperoliidae, Phrynobatrachidae, Pipidae, Ptychadenidae, Pyxicephalidae, Ranidae, Agamidae, Amphisbaenidae, Chamaeleonidae, Colubridae, Elapidae, Gekkonidae, Gerrhosauridae, Lacertidae, Lamprophiidae, Natricidae, Pelomedusidae, Scincidae, Typhlopidae, Viperidae |
| Genus | Arthroleptis, Breviceps, Poyntonophrynus, Sclerophrys, Hemisus, Hyperolius, Phrynobatrachus, Hylarana, Ptychadena, Amietia, Xenopus, Acanthocercus, Agama, Dalophia, Zygaspis, Chamaeleo, Crotaphopeltis, Dasypeltis, Dispholidus, Boaedon, Psammophis, Philothamnus, Hemidactylus, Gerrhosaurus, Tetradactylus, Ichnotropis, Lycophidion, Psammophylax, Prosymna, Limnophis, Natriciteres, Pelomedusa, Pelusios, Sepsina, Trachylepis, Lubuya, Panaspis, Varanus, Afrotyphlops, Causus, Bitis |
| Species | Arthroleptis stenodactylus, Breviceps poweri, Poyntonophrynus kavangensis, Sclerophrys garmani, Sclerophrys gutturalis, Sclerophrys pusilla, Hemisus marmoratus, Hyperolius sp., Hyperolius angolensis, Phrynobatrachus natalensis, Xenopus petersii, Amietia angolensis, Hylarana darlingi, Ptychadena sp., Ptychadena uzungwensis, Ptychadena cf. mascareniensis, Ptychadena subpunctata, Ptychadena upembae, Ptychadena anchietae, Ptychadena anchietae, Bitis arietans, Bitis gabonica, Causus rhombeatus, Causus bilineatus, Varanus niloticus, Afrotyphlops sp., Afrotyphlops angolensis, Trachylepis bayonii, Trachylepis wahlbergii, Panaspis sp., Trachylepis monardi, Trachylepis sp., Lubuya ivensii, Sepsina angolensis, Pelusios bechuanicus, Pelomedusa subrufa, Limnophis bangweolicus, Natriciteres sp., Limnophis bicolor, Psammophis mossambicus, Psammophylax acutus, Boaedon fuliginosus, Boaedon sp., Psammophis zambiensis, Prosymna angolensis, Psammophylax sp., Lycophidion capense, Ichnotropis bivittata, Gerrhosaurus bulsi, Tetradactylus ellenbergeri, Hemidatylus longicephalus, Pseudohaje goldii, Philothamnus heterolepidotus, Dispholidus typus, Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia, Philothamnus angolensis, Dipsadoboa shrevei, Dasypeltis scabra, Chamaeleo dilepis, Zygaspis nigra, Dalophia angolensis, Agama sp., Agama schacki, Agama aculeata, Acanthocercus cyanocephalus |
| Subspecies | Dispholidus typus punctatus |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 1957-01-01 / 1972-01-01 |
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Project Data
Angola and Namibia form a hotspot for amphibian and reptile diversity, together encompassing a complete faunal turnover from arid to equatorial African biotas. Most primary biodiversity data for species in these countries remain inaccessible. Decades of civil war in Angola coupled with a lack, in both countries, of expertise in biodiversity informatics means that much of the scientific collections that document the diversity and distribution of this unique fauna remain unknown. Biodiversity data associated with specimens in scientific research collections underlies this project’s ability to investigate spatial patterns of biodiversity (including richness and endemism) as well to make informed conservation decisions. A significant challenge facing students, biodiversity scientists, and conservationists working in Africa is the lack of access to information and primary data. By facilitating access to biodiversity data through digitizing existing scientific collections in countries, such as Angola and Namibia, and providing training to build in-country capacity in informatics, both basic science and conservation can be advanced for species and landscapes that have and will continue to change quickly.
| Title | Digitizing Southwestern-African Herpetological Collections |
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| Funding | This project was funded by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation (JRS) as one component of the project "Digitizing Southwestern-African Herpetological Collections" managed by the California Academy of Sciences and the Florida Museum of Natural History. |
The personnel involved in the project:
- Curator
Sampling Methods
The majority of the records of this dataset result from the Missões Apícolas de Angola carried out by the former Junta de Investigação do Ultramar, coordinated by Fernando Frade and José Filipe Lopes do Rosário Nunes between 1957 and 1959. Some of these specimens were previously studied and cited in Manaças (1963, 1973, 1982), Gans (1976) and Ruas (1996, 2000). Other records result from intermittent donations of specimens to the Junta de Investigação Científica do Ultramar from 1957 to 1972 .
| Study Extent | The study covers part of Angola, including 10 of the 18 provinces. The best represented province is Moxico, while there are also some few records from Malanje, Uíge and Bié. The provinces of Zaire, Kwanza Norte, Luanda, Bneguela, Namibe, Cunene, and Cuando Cubango are not represented in the collection . The temporal distribution is mainly concentrated in the decade of 1950s (especially in years 1957, 1958 and 1959). |
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| Quality Control | Information from each specimen was catalogued in an Excel spreadsheet, involving two steps: i) digitization of specimen records; and ii) taxonomic revision and data checking. The authors AMB and DCB also contributed to the taxonomic revision of the specimens, either by direct contact with the specimens or through high- quality digital photographs. Nomenclature was checked through available literature, The Reptile Database [http://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/], and the Amphibia Species of the World v.6.0 [http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/]. Georeferencing followed the recommendations by Chapman and Wieczorek (2006), including the determination of uncertainty of coordinates, in particular when insufficient information was available from specimens' records and labels to attribute a specific locality (e.g. names of administrative regions, names of rivers, etc.). |
Method step description:
- The herpetological collections were catalogued using the software Microsoft Excel. We conducted extensive shelf surveys to locate all the remaining Angolan specimens of amphibians and reptiles. After locating the specimens, basic curatorial procedures were taken. Each jar was cleaned, and ethanol or formalin was changed to 70% ethanol. In certain cases jars were substituted as they were cracked or were otherwise not reliably sealable. All the information linked to the survinving specimens and/or jars were collected, copied, and linked to the specimen. After completion of curatorial activities, each specimen was identified to the species and/or subspecies level. The identification of the specimens was accomplished by consulting the most updated available literature sources and followed the currently accepted nomenclature. Additionally, the specimens' original information was re-checked at this phase, comparing the label data with surviving original field books and catalgoues, in order to screen for any initial cataloguing errors. The collecting locality for each bibliographic reference was georeferenced using: 1) the published gazetteer of all the vertebrate collections in Angola for all the publications before 1989 (Cabral & Mesquitela 1989), converted to decimal degrees; or 2) following the GPS location available in newer publications, and then also converting to decimal degrees. When no data were available in Cabral & Mesquitela (1989) or in the recent publications, we used "GEOLocate online application" (http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/) for georeferencing the locality cited . The uncertainty of georeferenced localities was recorded whenever possible. For some records it was not possible to determine the coordinates due to insufficient location information. All coordinates are given in geographic format, decimal degrees, datum WGS 84.
Collection Data
| Collection Name | Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical |
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| Specimen preservation methods | Alcohol |
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| Curatorial Units | Count 673 +/- 0 specimens |
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Bibliographic Citations
- Manaças, S. (1973 “1974”) Alguns ofídeos de Angola. Memórias da Junta de Investigação do Ultramar, 58 (2): 187–200
- Manaças, S. (1963) Sáurios de Angola. Memórias da Junta e Investigações do Ultramar, Lisboa, segunda série. Estudos de Zoologia, 43: 223–240
- Gans, C. (1976) Three new spade-snouted amphisbaenians from Angola (Amphisbaenia, Reptilia). American Museum Novitates 2590: 1–11
- Ruas, C. (2002) Batráquios de Angola em coleção no Centro de Zoologia. Garcia de Orta, Série de Zoologia, 24 (1–2): 139 –154
- Manaças, S. (1982) Ofídeos venenosos da Guiné, S. Tomé, Angola e Moçambique. Garcia de Orta: Série de Zoologia, 10 (1/2): 13-46.
- Ruas, C. (1996) Contribuição para o conhecimento da fauna de batráquios de Angola. Garcia da Orta: Série de Zoologia, 21(1): 19-41.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | ae52efd5-bfd4-4a81-ba12-813cace064f3 |
|---|---|
| http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=angolan_herpetological_collection_iict |