One of the hardest concepts to get across to students of natural history is the importance of recording full, adequate field data. Perhaps this is a natural condition, since we find similar lapses in most of the early field biologists. In much of the West and Southwest, for example, many of the early workers thought that the shipping point of a specimen destined for an eastern museum was sufficient locality data—even though the actual point of capture may have been scores or even hundreds of miles distant.
Although we'll probably never know, this may have played a part in
a bit of El Paso's biological fame. When a new species is described, a specimen is
chosen to tie together that species and its name. This so-called holotype is important
for that reason. El Paso is the place named as the site for two mammalian holotypes:
the Desert Shrew and the Texas Antelope Squirrel. However, El Paso was the nearest
shipping point for much of Trans-Pecos Texas and southern New Mexico. Fame deserved?
Who knows?—but we'll take it.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.