Tardigrade collection of Ramazzotti
Citation
Zaupa S, Fontaneto D, Piscia R, Kamburska L (2025). Tardigrade collection of Ramazzotti. Version 1.4. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/wngz4x accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-02-08.Description
The dataset of the Ramazzotti collection is prepared within the Project ITINERIS (Italian Integrated Environmental Research Infrastructures System).The collection of Tardigrada by Giuseppe Ramazzotti, preserved at the Water Research Institute of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IRSA) in Verbania, Italy, is composed of numerous slides and microscopic preparations of tardigrades, including animals and their eggs. It is a historical collection that includes samples taken over a period of years from 1938 to 1964 in Europe, Africa, North and South America by one of the Italian taxonomists working on the phylum Tardigrada. The purpose of creating this dataset is to protect the information through the digitalization of the samples, and to facilitate sharing the information on the animals collected by Ramazzotti and stored at CNR-IRSA in Verbania. For this reason, each record in the database is associated with a photograph of the sample in question. The data have been organized into a standardized Darwin Core Archive format (Wieczorek et al., 2012). A total of 4183 records are present in the dataset: 855 refer to slides, 3328 to the actual samples of Tardigrada. Of these, 1750 have a species name, subsumed from the information on the slide, whereas for the others a higher taxonomic level such as genus, order or family have been assigned. Nomenclature of the species was also updated to the currently used synonyms, using WORMS as a reference site (https://www.marinespecies.org). When possible, the coordinates were found by reporting the locations written on the label in Google Earth. Since the specific coordinates of the sampling points are not known, the Locality centroid was used. A total of 204 locations are present in the dataset, but it was possible to trace the coordinates for only 96. Data are georeferenced according to WGS 84 datum.Sampling Description
Study Extent
A total of 4183 records are present in the dataset: 855 refer to slides, 3328 to the actual samples of Tardigrada, divided between individuals and eggs. Of these, 1750 have a species name, subsumed from the information on the slide, whereas for the others a higher taxonomic level such as genus, order or family have been assigned. When possible, the coordinates were found by reporting the locations written on the label in Google Earth. Since the specific coordinates of the sampling points are not known, the Locality centroid was used. A total of 204 locations are present in the dataset, but it was possible to trace the coordinates for only 96. Data are georeferenced according to WGS 84 datum.Sampling
The real samples of Tardigrada were collected in a different way depending on the habitats. For the terrestrial environments by scraping the surfaces of stones, rocks, wood, aquatic plants, while for the lacustrine part using pumps. Different mounting media and colourants were used for the preparation of the slides: mainly Faure and Polyvinyl, but also Formalin, Lactophenol, Carmine Acetic, Chlorazol Black, Eosin methylene, Potassium hydroxide, Turtox CMC-S.Quality Control
Quality control for geographic data: Reliability of coordinates where available was checked in Google maps. Geographic coordinate format, coordinates within country/provincial boundaries, and the absence of anomalous ASCII characters in the dataset were also double checked. Quality control for taxonomic data: The revision of the species nomenclature was done using WORMS as a reference site.Method steps
- The specimens were photographed using a microscope Zeis Axioplan, with TiEsseLab TrueChrome HD IIS camera and Leica DM6 B, with Leica K3C camera. The size of each photo ranges from approximately 5 MB to 18 MB in BMP and Tiff format. The photos have been renamed to give a unique code for each image, using: CollectionCode, the Roman numeral of the box, the slide number and the number of the specimen. When there is only one animal in a slide, the last number has been omitted. ES: RamVB-XI-2_4 = box XI-slide 2_animal 4. The unique code for each photo is the same as that assigned to the record in the database for the same individual. In total 3328 images were produced. In addition to the animals, individual slides were also photographed so other 855 images were produced. In this case the photo has been renamed with the Roman numeral of the box, the number of the slide, and the letter S, to indicate that it is the image containing the slide. These are not present in the dataset as records, because they do not contain information.
Taxonomic Coverages
-
Tardigradarank: phylum
Geographic Coverages
Most of the samples were taken in Europe, in particular from Italy, Germany, France, Finland, Norway, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Other samples come from Africa (Uganda and Congo), North America (United States and Mexico) and South America (Chile).
Bibliographic Citations
- Wieczorek J, Bloom D, Guralnick R, Blum S, Döring M, Giovanni R, Robertson T, Vieglais D (2012) Darwin Core: An Evolving Community-Developed Biodiversity Data Standard. PLoS ONE 7 (1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029715 -
Contacts
Silvia Zaupaoriginator
position: Technician
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA)
Largo Vittorio Tonolli 50
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: silvia.zaupa@cnr.it
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7379-6087
Diego Fontaneto
originator
position: Researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA); National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC)
Largo Vittorio Tonolli 50 CNR-IRSA
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: diego.fontaneto@cnr.it
homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego-Fontaneto
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5770-0353
Roberta Piscia
originator
position: researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA)
Largo Vittorio Tonolli 50
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: roberta.piscia@cnr.it
userId: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=lR9giA8AAAAJ&hl=it
Lyudmila Kamburska
originator
position: researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA); National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC)
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: lyudmila.kamburska@irsa.cnr.it
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5071-6953
Silvia Zaupa
metadata author
position: Technician
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA)
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: silvia.zaupa@cnr.it
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7379-6087
Diego Fontaneto
metadata author
position: Researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA); National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC)
Largo Vittorio Tonolli 50 CNR-IRSA
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: diego.fontaneto@cnr.it
homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego-Fontaneto
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5770-0353
Roberta Piscia
curator
CNR-IRSA
Verbania
IT
email: roberta.piscia@cnr.it
Silvia Zaupa
administrative point of contact
position: Technician
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA)
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: silvia.zaupa@cnr.it
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7379-6087
Diego Fontaneto
administrative point of contact
position: Researcher
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque (IRSA); National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC)
Largo Vittorio Tonolli 50 CNR-IRSA
Verbania
28922
Verbania
IT
email: diego.fontaneto@cnr.it
homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego-Fontaneto
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5770-0353