How strong is the "chain of custody" or traceability, with the specimen that was supposedly misidentified originally?
It sounds like they had an extraordinary finding in 2020, and it depends on the specimen having been misidentified in 2012. Rather than any other explanation for how this could've happened over the 8 years and various people who handled it.
For example, could the labeling have been mixed up at some point during maintenance of a collection and its storage? Could a drunk student have pulled a prank, but it got out of hand as soon as the professor told others, and now there's no way the student is going to tell anyone?
I'd guess it's legit, but would be nice to understand how researchers in that field can have the apparent level of confidence.
It's theoretically possible for the basic collection details to get mixed up but quite unlikely. The three basic collection details (location, date, and collector name) are pinned on a card beneath the insect and rarely taken off.
It sounds like they had an extraordinary finding in 2020, and it depends on the specimen having been misidentified in 2012. Rather than any other explanation for how this could've happened over the 8 years and various people who handled it.
For example, could the labeling have been mixed up at some point during maintenance of a collection and its storage? Could a drunk student have pulled a prank, but it got out of hand as soon as the professor told others, and now there's no way the student is going to tell anyone?
I'd guess it's legit, but would be nice to understand how researchers in that field can have the apparent level of confidence.