Yet Another Way Museums Are Biased: A New Study Says Most Archaeological Specimens Are Male, Too

In an utterly unexpected example of male bias, a new study has
found that it isn’t just male artists that have a leg up on their
female counterparts—most of the animal specimens in museums are
male too.

A team of scientists led by Graham Gower of the University of
Copenhagen checked the sex counts for modern mammals in the
collections databases for the American Museum of Natural History in
New York, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in
DC, the Natural History Museum in London, and the Royal Ontario
Museum in Toronto. They also conducted DNA testing to determine the
sexes of Pleistocene bear and bison specimens that were
collected in the field or borrowed from museums.

Almost across the board, they were surprised to find most of the
animals were male, with the exception of bats, anteaters, and
sloths, which are mostly female. Hoofed mammals, armadillos,
and Tasmanian devils and their relatives featured the highest
percentage of male specimens.

The findings were published last week in the
journal Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.

While there will always be biases in museum holdings—larger
animals are easier to find that microscopic ones, and some regions
of the earth are more remote than others and therefore will be
underrepresented—it’s unclear why museum collections tend to favor
males. After all, all living things die, regardless of sex.

In the case of modern specimens, the hunters who often donate
them may prefer larger animals, which tend to be male, or feel bad
about killing mothers. And males often feature brighter colors, or
larger horns or antlers, which also increases their appeal.

As to why 74 percent of the bison and 64 percent of the
bears were male, Gower offered an interesting hypothesis,
suggesting that male mammals typically have wider ranges than
female mammals, and therefore are more likely to be found.

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Says Most Archaeological Specimens Are Male, Too appeared first
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