Naturalis' echinoderm collection contains about 30,000 specimens and is still growing. Echinoderms are sometimes better known as sea stars, sea urchins, sea lilies and sea cucumbers. The collection is arranged taxonomically by main groups, within which it contains a chronological alphabetical order. Dry and wet are separated and are roughly equal in volume.
History
Most of this collection is from the Indo-Pacific. More specifically, the vast majority is represented by material collected during the Siboga Expedition (1899-1900). The Siboga Expedition was an early deep-sea expedition around the former Dutch East Indies. A very high percentage of the material collected was new to science. The collection has also grown considerably through later expeditions such as the CANCAP expeditions and Snellius Expeditions. Due to extensive research on this material since the early 20th century, the collection also contains many so-called type specimens from this area. The echinoderm collection contains a great diversity of species unknown to many people. For example, the collection has a wealth of deep-sea species, or special species such as sea lilies known mainly from fossils.
Long historyof research
Since the late 19th and early 20th centuries there has been plenty of attention to these collections in particular by such well-known names as Theodore Lyman (US: 1833-1897), Carel Philip Sluiter (1854-1933), Ludwig Döderlein (DU: 1855-1936), René Koehler (FR: 1860-1931), Johannes Cornelis Hendrik de Meijere (1866-1947), Ole Theodor Jensen Mortensen (DE: 1868-1952), Hubert Lyman Clark (US: 1870-1947) and Hendrik Engel (1898-1981). These collections are also receiving considerable international attention today.
Centerpieces
Because of the long history of research, the Echinodermata collection is also rich in type specimens. These are the specimens that were used in the preparation of the species description, and thus, as it were, the official representative of that species. Naturalis is currently busy mapping all the type specimens in the collection.
Keypublications
Jangoux, M. & de Ridder, C. 1987. Annotated Catalogue of recent Echinoderm type specimens in the collection of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden. Zoologische Mededelingen 61(6): 79-96
The collection of Echinodermata on GBIF and in the Bioportal of Naturalis
Jangoux M., De Ridder C., MassinC. & P. Darsono, 1989. The holothuroids, echinoids and asteroids (Echinodermata) collected by the Snellius-II Expedition. Neth. J. sea Res. 23 (2): 161-170