Archival DNA from historical ethanol preserved museum specimens.

We use NGS technology to obtain DNA sequences from historical (<200 year old) ethanol preserved museum specimens of reptiles and amphibians. We focus on resolving the systematic position of rarely collected and extinct species with no previously available DNA sequence data, resolve taxonomic issues by sampling type specimens, identify potential new species, and improve biogeographic knowledge by using historical collections to fill distribution gaps from inaccessible or poorly studied populations, or biologically modified localities where the species might now be locally extinct.