La colección osteológica de aves del Museo de Historia Natural “Gustavo Orcés V.”

Abstract

The Avian Osteological Collection (MEPN-O) of the Gustavo Orces V Natural History Museum has 3367 well-identified disarticulated bones. The MEPN-O allows the examination of bone structures without the constraint of the ensembled skeletons typically found in the exhibition. The MEPN-O includes 63 species, 17 orders, 28 families, and 57 genera. Forty-three percent of MEPN-O comes from the Pacific lowland, 43% from the Andean highland, 12% from Amazon, and 2% from Galapagos Archipelago. Even though there are still few MEPN-O specimens, it is one of the most well-developed osteological collections in Ecuador and offers information for studies in ecology, evolution, systematics, paleontology, and archaeology