Florida Museum of Natural History Fish Collection

Description

The Florida Museum Fish Collection at the University of Florida is nearly 3 million preserved fish specimens and the research scientists who study them... Research scientists at the Florida Museum Fish Collection describe new species of fish, investigate fish classification, and grow and maintain an enormous collection of fishes from all over the globe. Additionally, a global consortium of researchers use the specimens and related data to answer a range of questions related to fish biology. The Florida Museum Fish Collection at the University of Florida is ranked in the top five most important fish specimen resources in North America, including the second-highest "National Center" ranking by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (POSS, S.G. AND B.B. COLLETTE. 1995. SECOND SURVEY OF FISH COLLECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. COPEIA 1995: 48-70). Since that survey was completed, the 65,000-lot University of Miami collection was transferred and is being integrated into the Florida Museum of Natural History. The Florida Museum of Natural History now warrants recognition as an International Center. The collection contains more than 221,000 cataloged lots (approximately 2,370,740 specimens), representing more than 9,400 species. The Museum also has an unsorted backlog of about 9,000 lots (about 90,000 specimens). Most of the uncataloged and backlog material was acquired through transfer of the important collections previously housed at the Natio