Vertebrate Zoology Collections
The Vertebrate Zoology Department includes three vertebrate sections: mammals (other than primates), amphibians and reptiles, and fishes plus the crayfish collection and the demestid (beetle) laboratory.
The mammal skin, skull, and skeletal collections include about 19,000 specimens mainly from North America and Africa. The mammal collection was instrumental to the growth of Museum during the 1930's through the 1950's. Currently collection data is retrievable from bound catalogue books and from cards organized by locality and by taxa.
Most specimens were acquired prior to 1942 under the auspices of special projects: the Three-Corner Round Expeditions to California, 1932-1942; the Bole-Moulthrop Collection of Ohio mammals from the Northern Ohio Fieldwork Project 1932-1935; and the Crile-Fuller Expedition to Tanganyika, 1935; and a series of other expeditions to Africa and Panama.
The collection is fully accredited by The American Society of Mammalogists. Collection data records are maintained within the Department and on microfilm within the Museum Archives and offsite.
Fishes and the amphibian and reptile collections (other than dinosaurs) were not well represented in the Museum collections until the middle 1970's. The collections were very small until the 1950's when some growth took place. These collections began rapid growth during the late 1970's when active surveying of the Ohio fish and herpetofauna began.
During the 1980's the Museum obtained the Andrew White collection of Ohio fishes from John Carroll University and the private collection of Ohio salamanders from R.A. Pfingsten. These sections are the most rapidly growing within the Department. The fish collection includes about 11,000 catalogue entries whereas the amphibian/reptile collection includes approximately 10,000 entries.
The crayfish collection began during the 1970's at the same time as expansion to the fish and amphibian/reptile collections began; it includes about 900 jars of specimens.
Crayfishes, fishes, and amphibians and reptiles are catalogued in a shared computerized database. Data from parts of each collection other than crayfish are also catalogued in bound catalogue books and on cards.