Scientific specimens, the cornerstone of our discipline, have a rich and colorful history. Yet perhaps the most classic study in evolutionary biology based on specimens—Charles Darwin’s study of the finches of the Galapagos Islands—almost wasn’t possible despite Darwin collecting a number of specimens. Darwin accompanied Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy, captain of the British warship H. M. S. Beagle, on the 5-year round-the-world voyage as the ship naturalist (1831–1836). After returning to England, Darwin and John Gould, the famous English ornithologist, were handicapped in using Darwin’s specimens to unravel the complexities of the bill sizes and shapes and species diversity of Galapagos finches because Darwin had neglected to label the individual islands from which his specimens were collected. To unravel the evolution of the birds known as Darwin’s finches, Darwin and Gould relied on the specimens of Robert FitzRoy’s and Darwin’s servant, Syms Covington, because they had been labeled by island. Attributing the holotypes of Darwin’s finches to the specific island collected remains problematic to this day (Sulloway 1982). Darwin’s failure to label his bird specimens individually was not atypical for the time.

中文翻译：

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改变哺乳动物学的创新：博物馆研究皮肤

科学标本是我们学科的基石，有着丰富多彩的历史。然而，也许基于标本的进化生物学中最经典的研究——查尔斯·达尔文对加拉帕戈斯群岛雀类的研究——尽管达尔文收集了许多标本，但几乎不可能实现。达尔文陪同英国军舰H 号舰长罗伯特·菲茨罗伊中将。米。小号。比格犬，在为期 5 年的环球航行中作为船舶博物学家（1831-1836 年）。回到英国后，达尔文和英国著名鸟类学家约翰·古尔德在使用达尔文的标本来解开加拉帕戈斯雀的喙大小、形状和物种多样性的复杂性方面遇到了障碍，因为达尔文忽略了标记他的标本来自的各个岛屿被收集。为了解开被称为达尔文雀类的鸟类的进化，达尔文和古尔德依靠罗伯特·菲茨罗伊和达尔文的仆人西姆斯·科文顿的标本，因为它们被贴上了岛屿的标签。直到今天，将达尔文雀的正模标本归于所收集的特定岛屿仍然存在问题（Sulloway 1982）。达尔文未能为他的鸟类标本单独贴上标签，这在当时并非不典型。