biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

, a biofact is dead material of a once-living organism. In 1943, the

protozoologist Protozoology is the study of protozoa, the "animal-like" (i.e., motile and heterotrophic) protists. The Protozoa are considered to be a subkingdom of Protista. They are free-living organisms that are found in almost every habitat. All humans have pr ...

Bruno M. Klein of Vienna (1891–1968) coined the term in his article ''Biofakt und Artefakt'' in the microscopy journal ''Mikrokosmos'', though at that time it was not adopted by the scientific community. Klein's concept of biofact stressed the dead materials produced by living organisms as sheaths, such as shells. The word ''biofact'' is now widely used in the zoo/aquarium world, but was first used by Lisbeth Bornhofft in 1993 in the Education Department at the

New England Aquarium The New England Aquarium is a public aquarium located in Boston, Massachusetts. The species exhibited include harbor and northern fur seals, California sea lions, African and southern rockhopper penguins, giant Pacific octopuses, weedy s ...

, Boston, to refer to preserved items such as animal bones, skins, molts and eggs. The Accreditation Standards and Related Policies of the

Association of Zoos and Aquariums The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in ...

states that biofacts can be useful education tools, and are preferable to live animals because of potential ethical considerations.

References

Biology terminology {{biology-stub

See also

References