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A study of the mammals of the Gila region of New Mexico was conducted from 2012 through 2020, with 2,919 voucher specimens collected through fieldwork and collaborations with commercial trappers, in addition to data from camera traps, review of major holdings at 46 museums ( n = 12,505 georeferenced specimens), and literature review. Specimens cover a 170-year span, dating back to 1850 and were unevenly distributed spatially and temporally across the Gila region. Most areas were very poorly represented and when summed across all mammal species, ranged from 0.02 to 3.7 specimens per km 2 . The survey documented 108 species (104 now extant) for the region. High species richness, greater than that reported for 38 states in the United States, is likely due to the juxtaposition of multiple biomes in the Gila, including the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Great Basin deserts, the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Madre Occidental, and nearby “sky islands’’ of the Southwest. Two species, Leptonycteris yerbabuenae and Zapus luteus, are documented for the first time from the study area. Expansions of the known range of these species , and Sciurus arizonensis are described from specimen and camera data. Preliminary phylogeographic studies of four species ( Notiosorex crawfordi, Neotoma albigula, Perognathus flavus, and Thomomys bottae ) using the mitochondrial cytochrome- b gene reveal the dynamic biogeographic history of the region and reinforce how landscape complexity and climate change have jointly contributed to diversification and thus high mammalian diversity in the region.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic reveals a major gap in global biosecurity infrastructure: a lack of publicly available biological samples representative across space, time, and taxonomic diversity. The shortfall, in this case for vertebrates, prevents accurate and rapid identification and monitoring of emerging pathogens and their reservoir host(s) and precludes extended investigation of ecological, evolutionary, and environmental associations that lead to human infection or spillover. Natural history museum biorepositories form the backbone of a critically needed, decentralized, global network for zoonotic pathogen surveillance, yet this infrastructure remains marginally developed, underutilized, underfunded, and disconnected from public health initiatives. Proactive detection and mitigation for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) requires expanded biodiversity infrastructure and training (particularly in biodiverse and lower income countries) and new communication pipelines that connect biorepositories and biomedical communities. To this end, we highlight a novel adaptation of Project ECHO’s virtual community of practice model: Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA). MEPA is a virtual network aimed at fostering communication, coordination, and collaborative problem-solving among pathogen researchers, public health officials, and biorepositories in the Americas. MEPA now acts as a model of effective international, interdisciplinary collaboration that can and should be replicated in other biodiversity hotspots. We encourage deposition of wildlife specimens and associated data with public biorepositories, regardless of original collection purpose, and urge biorepositories to embrace new specimen sources, types, and uses to maximize strategic growth and utility for EID research. Taxonomically, geographically, and temporally deep biorepository archives serve as the foundation of a proactive and increasingly predictive approach to zoonotic spillover, risk assessment, and threat mitigation.

The Beringian Coevolution Project (BCP), a field program underway in the high northern latitudes since 1999, has focused on building key scientific infrastructure for integrated specimen-based studies on mammals and their associated parasites. BCP has contributed new insights across temporal and spatial scales into how ancient climate and environmental change have shaped faunas, emphasizing processes of assembly, persistence, and diversification across the vast Beringian region. BCP collections also represent baseline records of biotic diversity from across the northern high latitudes at a time of accelerated environmental change. These specimens and associated data form an unmatched resource for identifying hidden diversity, interpreting past responses to climate oscillations, documenting contemporary conditions, and anticipating outcomes for complex biological systems in a regime of ecological perturbation. Because of its dual focus on hosts and parasites, the BCP record also provides a foundation for comparative analyses that can document the effects of dynamic change on the geographic distribution, transmission dynamics, and emergence of pathogens. By using specific examples from carnivores, eulipotyphlans, lagomorphs, rodents, ungulates, and their associated parasites, we demonstrate how broad, integrated field collections provide permanent infrastructure that informs policy decisions regarding human impact and the effect of climate change on natural populations.