DOI: 10.15468/da94th
title: DecASO: Decapod Crustaceans of the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean

description: The Collection of Decapod Crustaceans of the Southwestern Atlantic (DecASO) is a dataset generated and maintained by the Zoology-Invertebrates Laboratory, based on the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the National University of Mar del Plata (FCEyN, UNMdP) and the Institute of Marine and Coastal Research (IIMyC) of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Argentina. The current version of this dataset provides only the occurrence information of the specimens available in the biological collection of the same lab at the time of its publication, with a total of 319 specimens. This collection is part of a larger and continuously developing project on crustacean diversity of the southwestern Atlantic, so it is expected to be updated periodically as the number of records in the collection increases significantly, or as new projects are added. The final version of this dataset will provide 1) a full and updated list of decapod species recorded in the Southwestern Atlantic, combined with 2) the updated occurrence data from specimens available in the reference biological collection, and 3) the link to the available genetic sequences generated from that material as part of a series of genetic barcoding projects. The checklist of species upon the biological collection is being built comes from an exhaustive review of the available bibliography, and reflects with minimal modifications what was published in the "Annotated catalogue and bibliography of marine and estuarine shrimps, lobsters, crabs and their allies (Crustacea: Decapoda) of Argentina and Uruguay (Southwestern Atlantic Ocean)" (URI: https://ri.conicet.gov.ar/handle/11336/121964; URL:http://ctmfm.org/revista/30/volumen-26/). The specimens and their genetic sequences were mainly obtained by the Laboratory of Invertebrate Zoology during several campaigns and projects carried out since 2000 to date (although some records may be older). Most specimens in the dataset are part of the DecASO collection, currently housed in the Biology Department of the FCEyN-UNMdP. In cases where there were no available specimens for a particular species in DecASO, the dataset refers to preserved specimens from public collections elsewhere, either donated from DecASO itself or collected independently by third parties. In the latter case, taxonomic identification is the responsibility of the holders of these specimens and has not been confirmed by the curators of this collection. Genetic barcoding data have also been mostly obtained by the Laboratory of Zoology-Invertebrates (IIMYC, FCEyN/UNMdP-CONICET), within the framework of IBOL-CONICET projects XXXX and XXXV. As with preserved specimens, where there are no sequences generated by this very project, openly available data from third parties are referred to. Note that in these cases, the original rights and permissions of each source must be applied. The projects that have contributed to the conformation of this collection in addition to those funded by IBol were: 2016- Grant Project Executing Unit Project PUE 22920160100011CO D. 2555/16 CONICET, 2018- Grant CONICET-Bunge Born to consolidate collections RESOL-2018-2094-APNDIR#CONICET, 2018- Grant "Management and Quality of Biodiversity Data. Introductory course in digitization projects of the National Biological Data System MINCyT, IIMyC own funds, and funds from grants of the involved Researchers.