Amber Listserv / amber holotypes

[Hans Henderickx]

Concerning the deposition of described unique amber type specimens in musea: it is recommended and requested by most editors that the holotype of a described new species remains under access by the public in an official museum, that implies that it canot be sold any more. The specimen is 'deposited' and gets a 'museum registration number' so it can be traced at all times. The museum is than the 'location of the holotype', but it cannot be sold by that museum nor by its legal owner so it looses his commercial value.

If a designated specimen would not be 'deposited' it would remain in the commercial circuit, and after a wile it will be lost (in an unknow drawer, a jewel box or a necklass). At that point there is a risk that people will start wondering if it even existed, since only drawings or pictures are left in an eventual publication.

There is no solution for the loss of commercial value. Even if the 'finder' is still the owner he cannot sell it any more after a holotype is designated. There is no point in forcing a museum to buy a holotype, because it has no commercial value after description and the museum cannot sell it. In fact the museum offers a service by registring, keeping it save and taking care for it, and putting it on display or availeble for loan.  

The Baltic fossil scorpion Palaeospinobithus cenozoicus and fossil pseudoscorpions Geogarypus gorskii and Pseudogarypus pangaea are all amber holotype specimens that I described and afterwards deposited 'for free' in a museum. I could have left them in my drawer with the other pieces or sold them, but than their scientific value would probably have been lost.

Hans Henderickx
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