Royal BC Museum - Invertebrates Collection

The Invertebrate Zoology collection of the Royal BC Museum comprises over 65, 000 lots of specimens, including more than 400 type specimens that have been referenced in original species descriptions. A lot may contain a single specimen, or it may consist of multiple individuals from a single sampling event. The collection has been acquired from various sources including research acquisitions, donations, and geographic/ecological surveys. The collection is phylogenetically broad in scope, containing representatives of at least 24 of the approximately 34 phyla of living invertebrate animals (excluding insects and most terrestrial arthropods), with a geographical focus on British Columbia, but which does not exclude comparative specimens from all continents and all oceans.
The collection includes wet (fluid preserved) and dry specimens, whole mounted and histologically sectioned specimens on microscope slides, as well as frozen tissue samples.

Geographical strengths include Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands), and southern mainland areas. Marine environments, particularly coastal habitats, are also well represented, and the collection’s rich diversity of marine fauna largely reflects the biological diversity of BC’s marine ecosystems. British Columbia’s invertebrate zoology collection is significant collection as it is the only province in Canada which intersects the Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomically, the collection is relatively diverse, although there remain areas of opportunity to increase this diversity. Molluscs (chitons, clams, snails, octopods and squid), arthropods (crabs, shrimps, and micro-crustaceans), annelids (worms), and echinoderms (sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers) are well-represented. Collectively, these groups make up more than 90% of the collection. Other less-dominant groups, such as cnidarians and bryozoans, are also relatively well represented but would benefit from increased study.

不列颠哥伦比亚皇家博物馆的无脊椎动物学藏品包括超过65,000件标本，其中包含400余件类型标本，这些标本已在原始物种描述中被引用。每一批次可能包含单个标本，也可能由来自单一采样事件的多个个体组成。该藏品通过研究收购、捐赠和地理/生态调查等多种途径获得。藏品在系统发育上范围广泛，涵盖了至少24个现存无脊椎动物约34个门类中的代表物种（不包括昆虫和大多数陆生节肢动物），地理上以不列颠哥伦比亚省为中心，但不排斥来自各大洲和各大洋的比较标本。藏品包括湿（液体保存）和干标本，以及装在显微镜载玻片上的完整装片和病理切片标本，还有冷冻组织样本。地理优势包括温哥华岛、海达瓜伊（原名查尔斯顿群岛）和南部大陆地区。海洋环境，尤其是沿海栖息地，也得到了充分的代表，藏品中丰富的海洋生物多样性在很大程度上反映了不列颠哥伦比亚省海洋生态系统的生物多样性。不列颠哥伦比亚省的无脊椎动物学藏品是一份重要的藏品，因为它是加拿大唯一一个与太平洋相交的省份。在分类学上，藏品相对多样，尽管仍存在增加多样性的机会空间。软体动物（鲍鱼、蛤蜊、蜗牛、章鱼和乌贼）、节肢动物（蟹、虾和微型甲壳类）、环节动物（蠕虫）和棘皮动物（海星、海胆、海参）得到了很好的代表。这些群体共同构成了超过90%的藏品。其他不那么占主导地位的群体，如刺胞动物和苔藓动物，也得到了相对较好的代表，但将受益于更多的研究。