The Museum That
Almost Never Was

A scientist exploring the richand diverse animal world ofSoutheastAsia will find a treasure
trove at the Raffles Museum ofBiodiversity Research. Housed in athree-storey building at The
National University ofSingapore, it
has one of the largest collections ofSoutheast Asian animals in theworld, with some 500,000 specimens
collected over the last 150 years.
Among these are 6,000 "type"specimens, each of which is an
original 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 specimensare irreplaceable!
But just 30 years ago, the fate of thecollection hung by a thread. It had
no permanent horne, and was
shuttled frorn place to place like apariah. Indeed, at one point, there
were talks of it ending up in theRatfies Museum at Stamford Road

Displays of Malayan wildlife

dustbills. Why had things tumedout this way?

The Golden Years
A

fter all, the collection had apromising start. It was Sir
Stamford Raffles, the founder ofmodem Singapore and a keen
naturalist, who mooted the idea of
establishing a natural history
museum here in 1823. The Raffies
Museum was set up in 1849. Overthe next 100 years, it became
effectively, a museum of
Malaysian and Singapore zoology.
Specimens from Singapore and theregion poured in from anenthusiastic public andThe memorable w haie skeleton

distinguished personalities like
Alfred Russell Wallace, Whampoa
Hoo Ah Kay, as well as the Sultan ofSingapore. In 1934, the museum
started the Bulletin ofthe Raffles
Museum, which quickly became olle
ofthe premier schorlarly journals in
its time, publishing many important
papers on Southeast Asian zoology.

The Tumultous Decade

B ut in 1969, its fate took aSoutheast 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

sudden tum for the worse. The
Singapore Science Centre was set up
and it was decided that the Raffles
Museum, then renamed the NationalMuseum, should cater for only artsand anthropology. All the 126,000
animal specimenswere moved toSingapore Science Centre. After ayear, they were transferred to thethen University of Singapore, andbecame known as the Zoological
Reference Collection in 1972. The
only catch was that the university atBukit Timah could not find enoughRatfies

space for the specimens, whichwere housed in bulky wooden
crates. So, over the next 14 years,
the crates trundled from five huts at
Ayer Rajah, back to the Bukit
Timah campus, where they werekept in different departments, andthen to Nanyang University's
library at Jurong. Mrs Yang Chang
Man, chief curator and stoic
custodian of the collection since1972, recalled: "Every move took
several months and required at least
40 lorries."

establishment üf a research centre
für biüdiversity. The Züalügical
Reference Callectiün, tagether
with its newly acquired
cüllectians, and a new mandate fürIC" cc\ic"C0
The old storage Gases 1972-1998

Due to frequent transfers and bad
storage conditions, some specimens
were damaged. It was only throughthe curators' tremendous efforts thatnot more was lost! Despite the lacki 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 evenoffered to receive in part or even buy
the entire collectionAFunoutright.

CircleI t seernedby sheer luck thatthe collection held out as long as
it did. In 1986, it finally got apermanent horne in the new campus
ofthe National University ofSingapore at Kent Ridge. Today, the500,000 specirnensare stored in
specially-designed airtight storage
compactor systems,with 24-hour air
conditioning and controlled humidity. It has also incorporated the plantand fungi collections kept by theHerbarium of the former DepartmentofBotany. But it is determined to be
more than a "dumping ground" ofdead plants and animals.
In 1998, the university decided thatthe time was ripe for the2Modern storage facilities in the museum

MuseumNewsletter,

No.1,

June15, 2001

research, publication and publiceducation, was reorganised into
the Raffies Museum ofBiodiversity Research. The
Bulletin of the Raffies Museum,
which was restarted in 1987 as theRaffies Bulletin of Zoology,
quickly regained its reputation as
the premier journal for Southeast
Asian biodiversity research. With
the world in the grip of abiodiversity crisis, research in thisarea is ofparticular urgency, said
Associate Professor Peter Ng, themuseum's director and aninternational specialist in crabs.
He pointed out that SoutheastAsia
is one ofthe world's biodiversity
hotspots, though it has received
much less attention compared tothe Amazon, West Africa and theGreat Barrier Reef. "But how can
we protect the diversity of thisregion ifwe do not conduct thenecessaryresearch to understand it
in the first place?" he asked.

Ratfies

SmaU Is Beautiful

MuseumNewsletter,No.1,

June15, 2001

-How A Muscologist
Was Born

A ssociate Professor BenitoTan is a muscologist bytraining, but he seIdorn introduces
hirnself as such. "1 used to, but some
pebple thought I am a specialist on
the city affairs ofMoscow," he says,
with a laugh. A Chinese Filipino,
Benito, who joined the university in
1998, 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 throughout
Asia over the last 20 years whilecollecting these ancient plants. In
his innumerable moss-hunting trips
in Asia, the closest he came tolosing his life was four years ago,
when his boat capsized on a fastflowing glacier-fed river in Siberia.
Luckily, he managed to swim toshore. Not that the experience has
deterred hirn. In June, he willlead
an international team to go mosshunting once again -to the Altai
Mountain Range in Mongolia undera National Geographic Societygrant.
Benito came to specialize in thisobscure field by chance. His parents

4

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

wanted hirn to be a medical
doctor. "But I pass out when I see
blood!" he says. Having nurtured
a love for nature since he wasyoung, he decided to study plants"since they don't bleed ifthey are
cut into pieces." His first love wasfor fems, but after graduating witha M.Sc. from the University ofthe
Philippines in 1974, he decided topursue his doctorate in the study
ofmosses as they were thenunknown to many in the Philippines. After obtaining his doctorate from the University of British
Columbia, he taught at theUniversity of Philippines for eightyears. In 1988, he decided toplunge into research full-time.
He joined the New York Botanical

Garden as a curatorial assistantfor two years. Then, for sevenyears, he conducted the moss
research in preparation for theFlora of China mega-project at
the Farlow Herbarium at
Harvard University. But four
years ago, the desire to teachre-surfaced and he took up ateaching position at NUS. In his
first two years here, his warmthand patience have won over thestudents who voted hirn for the
meritorious teaching award
twice. In spite of his manyteaching and administrative
duties, he still finds time to
devote to research. "Otherwise,
I will have nothing new to tell
the students ! " he said.

Ratfies

TheMuseumNewsletter,

No.1,

June

SecondCoelacanthT

he discovery ofthe firstcoelacanth in 1938 from theIndian Ocean was a milestone
because many people see it as a'missing link' between fishes andamphibians. The fish, which has
remained unchangedfür 300-400
million years, is w hat biologists calla living fossil. Coelacanths are
unusual among bony fishes inhaving lobed fins and an additional
lobe on the tail. They are slowmoving noctumal drift hunters ofbottom-dwelling animals. They havebeen found in caves in groups ofup
to 14 individuals. Until JLB Smith,described Latimeria chalumnae in1938, coelacanths were believed tohave died out 70 million years ago.
In 1997,UniversityofCalifomia
graduate student, Mark Erdmann,encountered at a market at Manado,

15, 2001

Sulawesi, alarge fish
which tumedout to be thesecond
coelacanthspecies, andthe first fromoutside theIndian Ocean.
A specimen
was eventuallycollected, andin 1998,Erdmann, Roy Caldwelland their Indonesiancollaborator, Kasim Moosa,announced to the world that thecoelacanth had been found
13,000kilometres away from
where it was supposed to be.
As later work would show, theIndonesian coelacanth was adifferent species,with colour
differences and a different
genetic makeup.

K. Moosa holding a cast of Latimeria
menadoensis

at the museum

Refs: Erdmann, MV, RL Caldwell & MK
Moosa, 1998. Indonesian 'king of the sea'
discovered. Nature, 395: 335-335;
Erdmann MV, RL Caldwell, SL Jewett & A
Tjakrawidjaja, 1999. The second recorded
living 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

RafflesLire in theNetherworldC

aves are very hostile habitats -devoid oflight, often even
without a reliable food source. And
they are extreme habitats to explore.
Scientists who dare to venture into
this netherworld to brave thelightless cavems and narrow tunnels
are called speleologists, and they area very special (and very courageous) breed indeed! Some ofthecave animals being discovered arestrange beyond measure. In 1998,Louis Deharveng, a French
entomologist exploring caves incentral Laos, came across abizarre-looking crab with extremely
long legs and greatly reducedeyes. Former NUS graduate
student, Darren Yeo, who studied
these specimens, confirmed thatDeharveng had stumbled onto ananimal so extraordinary that it was
not only a new species but
deserving a new genus as well! Itwas also the first true cave crab
found in Indochina. Naming itMuseumNewsletter,No.1,June

15, 2001

Erebusa calobates, which means"stilt-walker from the netherworld", it hints ofwhat can be
expected from this area in the years
to come! Unlike normal crabs,Erebusa, has almost no eyes and isalmost blind. Without light, eyes areunnecessary and evolution has
selected against them! Instead, it
uses its very long legs to feel its
way around the cave.
Ref: Yeo, DCJ et al., 1999. Erebusa
calobates, new genus, new species, a
troglobitic crab (Brachyura: Potamidae)
from Laos. J. Crust. Biol., 19: 908-916.

The bizarre spider-Iike

Erebusa of Laos,-' --~, '... ~ ": ":-,~""'~ ...""""""~"y" , ",c,\'",,,c,

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

A New

OrchidSpecies

From

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

6Thetinyeyes

adaptationof Erebusa

are anto a lightlessworldGuinea. Recently, L. Garay andE.A. Christenson, named abeautiful new species collectedfrom Sabah,p doweryensis. A
NUS graduate student, Michelle
Goh Wee Kee, is currently
studying the molecular systematics of Phalaenopsis in an attempt
to provide a new classification
using biochemical markers as weIlas traditional morphologicalcharacters.
Ref: Christenson, E.A. 2001.
Phalaenopsis: a monograph. TimberPress, Portland, Oregon. 330 pp.

The beautiful Pha/aenopsis
doweryensis orchid from SabahRatfies

MuseumNewsletter,No.1,June15, 2001

7

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

Expeditions

Operation Xishuangbana(Yunnan 2000)

E

xpeditions are very important fora growing natural history
museum. Not only is it anopportunity for a museum to obtainfresh collections for various
research missions, it also allows themuseum staff a chance to work withlike-minded scientists fromneighbouring countries. Regional
collaborations of this type areintegral to building up each other's
strengths and bringing theresearchers closer together.

An expedition to Pulau Tioman by theRaffles Museum in 1962

8I n May 2000, the museum

YunnanNewt,

Tylototriton

shanjing

Or they can be mission-oriented-to look for specific groups oforganisms in order to accomplish a
research goal, for example therevision of a selected group ofplants or animals.

The old Raffles Museum was wellknown for its many successful
expeditions. It was among the firstorganisations to systematicallysurvey the famous Christmas
Island (now part of Australia). It
led the way with its many surveysofPulau Tioman and Taman

conducted a joint survey of theXishuangbana Basin in Yunnan,
China, with the Xishuangbanna
Tropical Botanic Gardens ofthe
Chinese Academy of Science. Themission was to see how thediversity ofkey aquatic animalgroups relates to the water quality
and hydrology of the system.
Two scientists, a resident spider
expert, Li Daiqin, and a visiting
entomologist from Scripps,
University ofCalifomia, Lanna
Cheng, as weIl as two graduate
students, Tan Heok Hui and Cai
Yixiong, worked with staff ofthe
institute for two weeks in Yunnan.
In the return visit in 2001, four
researchersfrom the institute,
led by their Deputy Director, Liu