Listing of HMS Challenger Sediment Collection

This is a dataset to accompany a paper published in 2025 in the journal Historical Biology: Miller, C. Giles and Jouet-Sarkany, Monique M. H. 2025. Sir John Murray’s H.M.S. Challenger Sedimentary Deposits Collection at the Natural History Museum, London. https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2025.2506185. A description of the fields is available via this link and the abstract for the paper copied:
The Natural History Museum holds 4,713 bottles, tubes, boxes and slides containing sediment and derived preparations from the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger (1873-1876). The sediment collections include manganese nodules, pumice, and various marine vertebrates and invertebrates from all the major oceans of the world. A complete online database of the collection is presented to include all of the associated collecting and preparation data from the oceanic dredges, trawls, soundings and anchor mud collections alongside shallower water collections previously undocumented in the Challenger Deep Sea Deposits Report of Murray and Renard (1891). The dataset allows assessment of other Challenger sediment collections in museums and private collections. A historical account of the collection follows; collecting and studying onboard, studying in Edinburgh post cruise, donation by Sir John Murray’s family to the British Museum (Natural History) and accounts of the collection’s historical housing at the museum. The historical context and presented dataset are intended to aid future users of the collection to select suitable materials for study or display. A review of previous scientific and exhibition uses of the collection is followed by suggestions for the future storage and potential for illuminating the debate on anthropologically driven climate, biodiversity and atmospheric changes.

本数据集配套发表于2025年《历史生物学（Historical Biology）》期刊的论文：Miller, C. Giles 与 Jouet-Sarkany, Monique M. H. 2025. 《伦敦自然历史博物馆约翰·默里爵士的英国皇家海军挑战者号（H.M.S. Challenger）沉积标本馆藏》。原文链接：https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2025.2506185。数据集字段说明可通过该链接查阅，本文同时附载该论文的摘要：
伦敦自然历史博物馆馆藏4713份瓶、管、盒及载玻片，内含英国皇家海军挑战者号（1873-1876年）环球科考采集的沉积物及其衍生制备样品。该沉积物馆藏涵盖锰结核、浮石，以及采自全球各大洋的各类海洋脊椎动物与无脊椎动物标本。本数据集构建了该馆藏的完整在线数据库，收录了海洋挖泥采样、底拖采集、测深采样及锚定泥样采集的全部相关采集与制备数据，同时纳入此前在Murray与Renard 1891年发布的《挑战者号深海沉积物报告》中未被记载的浅海采集样品相关信息。本数据集可用于评估其他博物馆及私人馆藏中的挑战者号科考沉积物标本。
下文将详述该馆藏的历史沿革：包括科考船上的采集与现场研究、科考结束后在爱丁堡开展的后续研究、约翰·默里爵士家属向大英博物馆（自然历史部）的捐赠，以及该馆藏在博物馆内的历史存放情况。本数据集及相关历史背景旨在帮助该馆藏的未来使用者遴选适用于研究或展览的标本材料。本文首先回顾了该馆藏过往的科学研究与展览应用情况，随后就其未来保存方案提出建议，并探讨了该馆藏在阐释人为驱动的气候、生物多样性与大气变化相关学术辩论中的应用潜力。