Threatened and extinct amphibians and reptiles in Italian natural history collections are useful conservation tools

Natural history museums are useful and irreplaceable tools to describe the biological diversity around the globe being the baselines and logical repositories for type designations. To confirm this, we checked the amphibians and reptiles present in the major Italian natural history collections, and verified the presence of threatened species according to IUCN Red List, included in the Extinct in the Wild category (EX), Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), and Vulnerable (VU) ones. Totally, we analyzed 40 Italian museums and collections. We detected one extinct reptile (Chioninia coctei) and four amphibian species (Pseudophilautus leucorhinus, P. nasutus, P. variabilis, and Atelopus longirostris). Most of the CR amphibian and reptile species (27) come from just one single museum/collection (Florence). The CR species which is mostly shared is the axolotl Ambystoma mexicanum, which is present in 16 collections. Fourteen CR reptile species and the extinct C. coctei are shared by more than one collection. Museums which host the greatest number of CR amphibian species are respectively Turin (18 species), Florence (15 species), and Genoa (5 species), while for reptiles are Genoa (16 species), Florence (12 species) and Pisa (7 species). Finally, we discussed about the utility and strategies to follow to implement museum functionality.