Dead Birds Do Tell Tales [story, pics]

grrlscientist writes: "What value do Natural History Museums have for modern DNA research? This story provides some insight from my own research. It also includes images!
EXCERPT: While many natural history museum study skin collections have specimens that are more than 100 years old, most museum tissue collections are very recent — in fact, many were initiated during the 1980s. Due to the perishable nature of tissues, they are expensive to maintain and must be carefully managed and continually replenished. Unfortunately, funding shortages and other considerations have made it more difficult for museums to collect animals as often as they did in the past. Therefore, tissues from both wild and captive animals are limited, particularly those from rare and difficult-to-collect animals, such as lories."