National Museum of Natural History Vertebrate Zoology Fishes Collections

The Fish Collection at the National Museum of Natural History is the largest in the world, containing an estimated 4 million specimens in over 540,000 lots. The collections are worldwide in coverage. We have the world's largest holdings of Indo-Pacific marine shore fishes and extensive coverage from freshwaters of both North and South America. The National Collection is the principal repository of type specimens in the United States; the 18,955 lots of types comprise the largest type collection of fishes in the world.

Please note that slightly over 50% of our holdings are presently listed in our dataset and we are constantly adding records. Approximately 95% of families with freshwater-dwelling species, but less than 50% of those of saltwater-dwelling species are entered into the database and available for online search.

Habitat Coverage: Temperate freshwater lakes/streams, Tropical freshwater lakes/streams, Estuarine, Marine (tropical, temperate, polar), Littoral, Pelagic, Neritic and Oceanic