Loosing the connection between the observation and the specimen: a by-product of the digital era or a trend inherited from general biology?

The original efforts of early naturalists are now placed in another context. Instead of adding lots of particulars to a catalogue of Life, the idea is now to contribute to an organized picture: comparative biology and general biology have merged. Systematics or the related sciences of Biodiversity employ a reasoning analogous to the one followed by early general biology when it separated from natural history and activities associated with collections in the early XX th century. There is a presumption one is already knowledgeable about laws or general patterns when studying biological processes or adding species: both contribute to the general picture. As a consequence of this state of mind, many authors do not feel the need for saving specimens. However, saving specimens is not only a way to keep records in a world which is still being discovered, it is also a very efficient way to store information and to allow one to return to the original specimens, thus generating additional data to answer other questions. We must be fully aware of both the rationale but also the present-day state of mind, in order to keep our motivation in the pursuit of an adequate sampling of Biodiversity.