The Museum ThatAlmost Never Was

Displays of Malayan wildlife

A scientist exploring the richand diverse animal world of

Southeast Asia will find a treasuretrove at the Raffles Museum ofBiodiversity Research. Housed in athree-storey building at TheNational University ofSingapore, ithas one of the largest collections ofSoutheast Asian animals in theworld, with some 500,000 specimenscollected over the last 150 years.Among these are 6,000 "type"specimens, each of which is anoriginal specimen studied when thespecies was first discovered.Scientists doing research on theseand related species have to refer tothis "type" specimen to confirm theidentities or make key inferences.These specimens are irreplaceable!

Ratfies Museum at Stamford Road

dustbills. Why had things tumed

out this way?

The Golden Years

The memorable w haie skeleton

distinguished personalities likeAlfred Russell Wallace, WhampoaHoo Ah Kay, as well as the Sultan ofSingapore. In 1934, the museumstarted the Bulletin ofthe RafflesMuseum, which quickly became olleofthe premier schorlarly journals inits time, publishing many importantpapers on Southeast Asian zoology.

But just 30 years ago, the fate of thecollection hung by a thread. It hadno permanent horne, and wasshuttled frorn place to place like apariah. Indeed, at one point, therewere talks of it ending up in the

A fter all, the collection had apromising start. It was Sir

Stamford Raffles, the founder ofmodem Singapore and a keennaturalist, who mooted the idea ofestablishing a natural historymuseum here in 1823. The RaffiesMuseum was set up in 1849. Overthe next 100 years, it becameeffectively, a museum ofMalaysian and Singapore zoology.Specimens from Singapore and theregion poured in from anenthusiastic public and

The Tumultous Decade

B ut in 1969, its fate took asudden tum for the worse. The

Singapore Science Centre was set upand it was decided that the RafflesMuseum, then renamed the NationalMuseum, should cater for only artsand anthropology. All the 126,000animal specimens were moved toSingapore Science Centre. After ayear, they were transferred to thethen University of Singapore, andbecame known as the ZoologicalReference Collection in 1972. Theonly catch was that the university atBukit Timah could not find enough

Southeast Asia, with its diversity of habitats, is internationally recognised as abiodiversity hotspot, with millions of undiscovered species. In the Raffles Museum,

work is ongoing to study this spectacular diversity

Ratfies Museum Newsletter, No.1, June 15, 2001

2

space for the specimens, whichwere housed in bulky woodencrates. So, over the next 14 years,the crates trundled from five huts atAyer Rajah, back to the BukitTimah campus, where they werekept in different departments, andthen to Nanyang University'slibrary at Jurong. Mrs Yang ChangMan, chief curator and stoiccustodian of the collection since1972, recalled: "Every move tookseveral months and required at least40 lorries."

establishment üf a research centrefür biüdiversity. The ZüalügicalReference Callectiün, tagetherwith its newly acquiredcüllectians, and a new mandate für

research, publication and publiceducation, was reorganised intothe Raffies Museum ofBiodiversity Research. TheBulletin of the Raffies Museum,which was restarted in 1987 as theRaffies Bulletin of Zoology,quickly regained its reputation asthe premier journal for SoutheastAsian biodiversity research. Withthe world in the grip of abiodiversity crisis, research in thisarea is ofparticular urgency, saidAssociate Professor Peter Ng, themuseum's director and aninternational specialist in crabs.He pointed out that Southeast Asiais one ofthe world's biodiversityhotspots, though it has receivedmuch less attention compared tothe Amazon, West Africa and theGreat Barrier Reef. "But how canwe protect the diversity of thisregion ifwe do not conduct thenecessary research to understand itin the first place?" he asked.

IC" c

c\ic"C

0

The old storage Gases 1972-1998 Modern storage facilities in the museum

Due to frequent transfers and bad

storage conditions, some specimens

were damaged. It was only through

the curators' tremendous efforts that

not more was lost! Despite the lack

i of working space, scientists,I including the then Crown Prince

Akihito of Japan, an expert in gobies,

continued to visit the Raffles

Museum. Other museums even

offered to receive in part or even buy

the entire collection outright.

A Fun Circle

I t seerned by sheer luck thatthe collection held out as long as

it did. In 1986, it finally got apermanent horne in the new campusofthe National University ofSingapore at Kent Ridge. Today, the500,000 specirnens are stored in

specially-designed airtight storagecompactor systems, with 24-hour airconditioning and controlled humid-ity. It has also incorporated the plantand fungi collections kept by theHerbarium of the former DepartmentofBotany. But it is determined to bemore than a "dumping ground" ofdead plants and animals.In 1998, the university decided thatthe time was ripe for the

Ratfies Museum Newsletter, No.1, June 15, 2001

SmaU Is Beautiful -

How A MuscologistWas Born

A ssociate Professor BenitoTan is a muscologist by

training, but he seIdorn introduceshirnself as such. "1 used to, but somepebple thought I am a specialist onthe city affairs ofMoscow," he says,with a laugh. A Chinese Filipino,Benito, who joined the university in1998, studies mosses, plants so tinythat most people do not bother togive a second look. As one of thefew experts on East Asiatic mosses,he has left his footprints throughoutAsia over the last 20 years whilecollecting these ancient plants. Inhis innumerable moss-hunting tripsin Asia, the closest he came tolosing his life was four years ago,when his boat capsized on a fast-flowing glacier-fed river in Siberia.Luckily, he managed to swim toshore. Not that the experience hasdeterred hirn. In June, he willleadan international team to go moss-hunting once again -to the AltaiMountain Range in Mongolia undera National Geographic Society

grant.

Benito Tan with a visiting scientist at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Garden as a curatorial assistantfor two years. Then, for sevenyears, he conducted the mossresearch in preparation for theFlora of China mega-project atthe Farlow Herbarium atHarvard University. But fouryears ago, the desire to teachre-surfaced and he took up ateaching position at NUS. In hisfirst two years here, his warmthand patience have won over thestudents who voted hirn for themeritorious teaching awardtwice. In spite of his manyteaching and administrativeduties, he still finds time todevote to research. "Otherwise,I will have nothing new to tellthe students ! " he said.

wanted hirn to be a medicaldoctor. "But I pass out when I seeblood!" he says. Having nurtureda love for nature since he wasyoung, he decided to study plants"since they don't bleed ifthey arecut into pieces." His first love wasfor fems, but after graduating witha M.Sc. from the University ofthePhilippines in 1974, he decided topursue his doctorate in the studyofmosses as they were thenunknown to many in the Philip-pines. After obtaining his doctor-ate from the University of BritishColumbia, he taught at theUniversity of Philippines for eightyears. In 1988, he decided toplunge into research full-time.He joined the New York Botanical

Benito came to specialize in thisobscure field by chance. His parents

4

Ratfies Museum Newsletter, No.1, June 15, 2001

The Second

Coelacanth

Sulawesi, alarge fishwhich tumedout to be thesecondcoelacanthspecies, andthe first fromoutside theIndian Ocean.

T he discovery ofthe firstcoelacanth in 1938 from the

Indian Ocean was a milestonebecause many people see it as a'missing link' between fishes andamphibians. The fish, which hasremained unchanged für 300-400million years, is w hat biologists calla living fossil. Coelacanths areunusual among bony fishes inhaving lobed fins and an additionallobe on the tail. They are slow-moving noctumal drift hunters ofbottom-dwelling animals. They havebeen found in caves in groups ofupto 14 individuals. Until JLB Smith,described Latimeria chalumnae in1938, coelacanths were believed tohave died out 70 million years ago.In 1997,UniversityofCalifomiagraduate student, Mark Erdmann,encountered at a market at Manado,

A specimenwas eventuallycollected, andin 1998, Erdmann, Roy Caldwelland their Indonesiancollaborator, Kasim Moosa,announced to the world that thecoelacanth had been found13,000 kilometres away fromwhere it was supposed to be.As later work would show, theIndonesian coelacanth was adifferent species, with colourdifferences and a different

genetic makeup.

K. Moosa holding a cast of Latimeria

menadoensis at the museum

Refs: Erdmann, MV, RL Caldwell & MKMoosa, 1998. Indonesian 'king of the sea'discovered. Nature, 395: 335-335;Erdmann MV, RL Caldwell, SL Jewett & ATjakrawidjaja, 1999. The second recordedliving coelacanth from north Sulawesi.Env. Biol. Fish., 54: 445-451; Pouyaud,L,S Wirjoatmodjo, I Rachmatika, ATjakrawidjaja, R Hadiaty & R Hadie,1999, A new species of coelacanth. CRAcad. Sci. ser. III-Vie, 322: 261-267.

5

Raffles Museum Newsletter, No.1, June 15, 2001

Lire in theNetherworld

strange beyond measure. In 1998,Louis Deharveng, a Frenchentomologist exploring caves incentral Laos, came across abizarre-looking crab with extremelylong legs and greatly reducedeyes. Former NUS graduatestudent, Darren Yeo, who studiedthese specimens, confirmed thatDeharveng had stumbled onto ananimal so extraordinary that it wasnot only a new species butdeserving a new genus as well! Itwas also the first true cave crabfound in Indochina. Naming it

Erebusa calobates, which means"stilt-walker from the netherworld", it hints ofwhat can beexpected from this area in the yearsto come! Unlike normal crabs,Erebusa, has almost no eyes and isalmost blind. Without light, eyes areunnecessary and evolution hasselected against them! Instead, ituses its very long legs to feel itsway around the cave.

Ref: Yeo, DCJ et al., 1999. Erebusacalobates, new genus, new species, atroglobitic crab (Brachyura: Potamidae)

from Laos. J. Crust. Biol., 19: 908-916.

The bizarre spider-Iike Erebusa of Laos

, --~ -' , '... ~ " '~ ..."""": " ~ "" ,\'

:- , "" ~ " "

y" , " ,

, ,c ,

NUS graduate student, Cai Yixiong, seen here speiunking in the caves ot thePhilippines, looking tor the strange and wonderful

c,

The tiny eyes of Erebusa are an

adaptation to a lightless world

A New Orchid

Species From

The Wild

Orchids are one ofthe mostspeciose group of plants on earth(some 20,000 species are known),and they are especially successfulin tropical Southeast Asia.Phalaenopsis is a genus oforchids well known for theiromamental value as cut-flowersand pot plants. There are 47species ranging from Yunnan toAustralia, India and Papua New

Guinea. Recently, L. Garay andE.A. Christenson, named abeautiful new species collectedfrom Sabah, p doweryensis. ANUS graduate student, MichelleGoh Wee Kee, is currentlystudying the molecular systemat-ics of Phalaenopsis in an attemptto provide a new classificationusing biochemical markers as weIlas traditional morphologicalcharacters.

Ref: Christenson, E.A. 2001.Phalaenopsis: a monograph. TimberPress, Portland, Oregon. 330 pp.

The beautiful Pha/aenopsisdoweryensis orchid from Sabah

6

C aves are very hostile habitats -

devoid oflight, often evenwithout a reliable food source. Andthey are extreme habitats to explore.Scientists who dare to venture intothis netherworld to brave thelightless cavems and narrow tunnelsare called speleologists, and they area very special (and very coura-geous) breed indeed! Some ofthecave animals being discovered are

Ratfies Museum Newsletter, No.1, June 15, 2001

7

RatfIes Museum Newsfetter, No.1, June 15, 2001

Expeditions Operation Xishuangbana(Yunnan 2000)

I n May 2000, the museumconducted a joint survey of the

Xishuangbana Basin in Yunnan,China, with the XishuangbannaTropical Botanic Gardens oftheChinese Academy of Science. Themission was to see how thediversity ofkey aquatic animalgroups relates to the water qualityand hydrology of the system.

Yunnan Newt, Tylototriton shanjing

Or they can be mission-oriented -

to look for specific groups of

organisms in order to accomplish a

research goal, for example the

revision of a selected group of

plants or animals.

E xpeditions are very important fora growing natural history

museum. Not only is it anopportunity for a museum to obtainfresh collections for variousresearch missions, it also allows themuseum staff a chance to work withlike-minded scientists fromneighbouring countries. Regionalcollaborations of this type areintegral to building up each other'sstrengths and bringing theresearchers closer together. Two scientists, a resident spider

expert, Li Daiqin, and a visitingentomologist from Scripps,University ofCalifomia, LannaCheng, as weIl as two graduatestudents, Tan Heok Hui and CaiYixiong, worked with staff oftheinstitute for two weeks in Yunnan.

The old Raffles Museum was wellknown for its many successfulexpeditions. It was among the firstorganisations to systematicallysurvey the famous ChristmasIsland (now part of Australia). Itled the way with its many surveysofPulau Tioman and Taman

In the return visit in 2001, fourresearchers from the institute,led by their Deputy Director, Liu

An expedition to Pulau Tioman by theRaffles Museum in 1962

8