1  Cover

      2  Title Page

      3  Copyright

      4  Foreword

      5  Acknowledgments

      6  1 Natural History Collections: An Essential Resource for Science in the 21st Century 1.1. Collections in early 21st century science 1.2. New explorations because of the magnitude and diversity of the collections’ data 1.3. Research using and driving the constitution of natural history collections 1.4. References

      7  2 Natural History Collections: An Ancient Concept in a Present and Future Perspective 2.1. Introduction 2.2. A tribute to curiosity and coupling with classifications 2.3. The structuring of our thoughts and actions by an ancient concept 2.4. Collections: more than species catalogues 2.5. Big Data collections in space and time 2.6. What future is there for the use of collections? 2.7. Conclusion 2.8. References

      8  3 Louis XIV’s Blue Gems: Exceptional Rediscoveries at the French National Museum of Natural History 3.1. Introduction 3.2. A scientific investigation of color 3.3. The digital decoding of the creative genius of the royal gem cutter 3.4. Epilogue: toward a renaissance... 3.5. References

      9  4 Rediscovering Human Mummies: Unpublished data on the Chachapoya Mummy Exhibited at the Musée de l’Homme 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Materials and methods 4.3. Results 4.4. Discussion 4.5. Conclusion 4.6. References

      10  5 Reconstructing the History of Human Populations: A Challenge for Biological Anthropology 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Cranial morphology and settlement history 5.3. Cranial morphology and adaptation to the environment 5.4. The importance of cranial collection for the advancement of research in biological anthropology 5.5. References

      11  6 The Discovery of New Metal-Hyperaccumulating Plant Species in Herbaria 6.1. Metal-hyperaccumulating plants 6.2. The screening of herbarium collections: from atomic absorption to X-ray fluorescence 6.3. The discovery of new metal-hyperaccumulating plants at the MNHN herbarium 6.4. Conclusion 6.5. Acknowledgments 6.6. References

      12  7 Fossil Crustaceans in the Light of New Technologies 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Fossil crustaceans 7.3. The radiation of fossil crustaceans 7.4. Exceptional preservation of fossil crustaceans 7.5. Ostracods and paleogeography at the end of the Paleozoic 7.6. References

      13  8 The “Cyanobacteria and Microalgae” Collection in the Time of “-omics” 8.1. Introduction 8.2. A living collection supported by research 8.3. New uses of the collection in basic research 8.4. Enhancing the value of biological resources through the search for innovative bioactive molecules 8.5. Expertise in environmental diagnosis 8.6. The living collection of cyanobacteria and microalgae of today and tomorrow 8.7. References

      14  9 The Collection of Cryopreserved Cells and Tissues of Vertebrates: Methods and Application 9.1. Introduction 9.2. History of