Ichthyology & Herpetology Resources | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Ichthyology and Herpetology Resources

In addition to our main collections in Ichthyology and Herpetology, we maintain special collections in both sections, including:

• Giles Mead Library, over 25,000 reprints and books concerning the systematics, ecology and evolution of fishes (the collection is databased in Microsoft Access 2007);
• Fitch Otolith Collection, approximately 100,000 recent and fossil otoliths donated by the late John E. Fitch;
• Larval Fish Collection, representatives of early life history stages for approximately 20% of our 10,000 species, making us an important center for larval fish research;
• Osteological Collection, 10,600 skeletons representing a variety of species of fish, elasmobranchs, lizards, snakes, and frogs from around the world;
• Costa Rican Expedition (CRE) Reptile and Amphibian Collection, including more than 20,000 specimens of frogs, snakes, and lizards collected in a variety of localities in Costa Rica throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s by Dr. Jay Savage and colleagues; and
• Herpetology library, an extensive collection of reprints, journals, and books covering all aspects of amphibian and reptile biology and evolution.