Florida Museum of Natural History : Collection Databases

The Florida Museum holds more than 20 million objects (or specimens) and maintains active collections in Anthropology (human culture), Archaeology (material culture), Botany (plants), Ecology, Herpetology (reptiles and amphibians), Ichthyology (fishes), Invertebrate and Vertebrate Paleontology (fossil animals), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Malacology (shells), Mammalogy (mammals), Ornithology (birds) and Paleobotany (fossil plants). Though developed primarily for research, the collections are used for teaching undergraduate and graduate students and by law enforcement agencies for the forensic identification of endangered species. Other uses are as diverse as the university itself. Applications include biomedical research, wildlife dentistry, historical biogeography and even studies of environmental contaminants. As the concern for Florida's environment increases, so does the monitoring of habitats and species by state and federal biologists. Museum collections document the past and recent distributions of plants, animals and cultures on our planet. In this important way natural history answers questions about the future. (Source: FLMNH.)