Sientífic Collections

The scientific collection of vertebrates includes specimens  - naturalized or conserved in alcohol – of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. These items are available to scientists worldwide for use in the study of systematics, zoogeography, ecology, genetics, etc. and are from different geographical areas: the Iberian Peninsula,  Africa and South America. 

The collection of fishes is the smallest, with some 8,000 specimens     (300 species); the herpetological collection contains 22,000 specimens of reptiles (450 species) and 15,000 amphibians (150 species); the ornithological collection has around  21,500 specimens (1,600 species); and the mammal collection some 30,000 specimens  (1,200 species).

Currently the main aim is the use of the collection by the scientific community, completing and updating the stock catalogue and facilitating access to it. Due to the considerable number of requests for tissue samples for molecular genetics research, a tissue bank has been set up with mammal dermal specimens.

Since 2017, the Scientific Collections are part of our Large Scale Facility ICTS-RBD