Erik Åhlander

Senior Assistant

Contact

Phone:+46 (0)8 519 541 18
E-mail: erik.ahlander@nrm.se

Billing and Mailing Address:

See the Staff and Contacts page.

Responsibilities

Care of collections of vertebrate, especially old collections and types.

Research Interests

Evaluation of origin and type status of 18th century specimens (and early 19th century specimens) in our collections. Reconstruction of flow of specimens between the different old Swedish collections (now in Stockholm, Uppsala, and London) and possible sources and curatorial history for each of them. History of the different collections and people involved (as owners, collectors, taxidermists etc.). Carl Linnaeus (later von Linné) and his species concept, way of handle specimens and way to describe species of animals. The result has impact on taxonomy and nomenclature for taxa described by Linnaeus, but also on several later authors. Many specimens considered as Linnaean type specimens seems not to have that status as well as many specimens considered as lost are still intact – with consequences for nomenclature.

History of the department of Vertebrate zoology. The department, the staff, and the collections are also of interest as part of our cultural history.

No external funding. Most work included in the general collection care.