Musei e laboratori: un lavoro comune per la salvaguardia delle tartarughe marine

We describe the aim, flowchart and current state of a research consisting in the collection, classification and conservation of alive and dead individuals of marine turtles found stranded along the Latium coasts. Since its inclusion in the Centro Studi Cetacei e Tartarughe marine (1997), 140 records were collected by the Civic Museum of Zoology, Rome. The osteological collection hosts material dating since the end of the 19th century. DNA obtained from both stranded and museum specimens revealed the mitochondrial haplotype CC-A2 as the most common. The results of the entire study will be disseminated in the Museum and made publicly available through its website. The relevance of the present work consists in highlighting the close relationship among institutions involved in recovery, rescue and rehabilitation, classification and exhibition, DNA studies and dissemination. The main purpose is to inform about the relevance of non-invasive genetic analyses of dead animals for the understanding of the biology of endangered species. An added value of this research is to made available to a wide audience scientific information currently accessible only to the researchers.