code: def get_specs(data):
      
      # sort the specimen names
      speclist = []
      for rec in data:
          try:
              spec = rec["er_specimen_name"]
          except KeyError as e:
              spec = rec["specimen"]
          if spec not in speclist:
              speclist.append(spec)
      speclist.sort()
      return speclist
docs: Takes a magic format file and returns a list of unique specimen names