Natural History Museum
ICHTHYOLOGY & HERPETOLOGY
Welcome to the Natural History Museum Ichthyology Department Web Site.

COLLECTION: ICHTHYOLOGY

The LACM (Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) fish collection is one of ten internationally recognized ichthyological collections in the United States. The collection contains an estimated five million specimens, of which roughly three million are catalogued (167,000 catalogued lots, including 212 holotypes and 8131 paratypes). Our collection emphasis is the Pacific Rim, with particular strengths in fishes from the Galapagos Islands, Hawaiian islands, Philippine Islands, the Antarctic, and the freshwaters of North, Central and South America.

Collection Information: voice: 213-763-3374, fax: 213-748-4432.

COLLECTION: HERPETOLOGY

The LACM collection of amphibians and reptiles contains ca contains ca 156,000 catalogued specimens from around the globe (see Collection Database link below). Its special strengths include the southwestern U.S., Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Galapagos Islands, eastern and southern Africa, and Australia. It contains material formerly in the collections of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California (USC & AHF), and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). In addition to specimens preserved in ethyl alcohol, there are photographic slides, and a large collection of herpetological reprints.

Collection Information: voice: 213-763-3374, fax: 213-748-4432.

RESOURCES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

On August 16, 2006 a large silvery fish swam into Big Fisherman Cove on Catalina Island. It was identified as an oarfish by researchers from the Wrigley Marine Science Center located in the Cove, who were able to dive with and photograph the fish as it swam. They collected it, froze it, and brought the fish by boat to the mainland where it was transported it to the Natural History Museum. The oarfish is now on display on the first floor.

(Click on photos to view larger version)

Photo courtesy of Troop 6 Phx. © C.Angell 2006 Photo courtesy of Judy Lemus Photo courtesy of Kristy Hollands


More information about it and oarfish in general can be found at the following links:

http://web.mac.com/alemus/iweb/Site/Welcome.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oarfish
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/rglesne.htm
http://fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=3267&genusname=Regalecus&speciesname=glesne
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XbeiVOFqQsc;


Giles Mead Library: over 25,000 reprints and books concerning the
systematics, ecology and evolution of fishes. The collection is databased in Endnote 3.0 and Access 2000.

Fitch Otolith Collection: approximately 100,000 recent and fossil otoliths donated by the late John E. Fitch.

Larval Fish Collection: we have representatives of early life history
stages for approximately 20% of our 10,431 species, making us an important center for larval fish research.

Osteological Collection: more than 7,000 skeletons representing a variety
of species from around the world.

Collections database: our catalogued holdings are web-searchable through:

  • The LACM Fish Collection is searchable via FishNet2 using the View Specimen Records option at http://www.fishnet2.net/portal-presentation/fishnet2portal?action=home

    Because of chronic problems with getting results from FishNet2, here are some temporary instructions that may help. After clicking on the link above, which directs you to the advanced search, it should say, “FishNet2 Home: Portal Home”
    1. Make sure “view specimen records” is selected and then click on “Build query”.
    2. It will go to the query form. Select “Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LACM) – Vertebrate Specimens” under data providers.
    3. Scroll down. Select query conditions such as, “Genus” “equals” “Scorpaenichthys”. Scroll down. Under “Specify results” select “Custom result set”. Move a few additional fields (besides the default ones) over to the selected column, such as “country”, “state/province”, and “locality”, etc.
    4. For “Record start” put 0; increase “Record limit” to at least 1000.
    5. Click on “Submit query”.
    6. Then you should get a choice if you want to see the results as a map, a table, a file, etc. Click on “View data as table” and wait for it to load. Then scroll down thru the file. “Download tabular results” also works; save file to your computer and open with Excel.
    7. Close the portal and webpage before you begin a new search or the portal will tend to keep searching using your original criteria.
    Good luck.

Search the Herpetology Collection via HerpNet

The Combined Index to Herpetology Collections:

STAFF

  • Collection Information
    voice: 213-763-3374
    fax: 213-748-4432

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90007 (213) 763-DINO
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