Of the almost 9 million specimens at the Museum, over two-thirds of them are part of the Invertebrate Zoology Department. But why is this department home to a whopping 6.8 million specimens? This department is special because it’s split into two collections: the terrestrial invertebrate collection and the marine invertebrate collection. Each group represents the environment in which these animals have lived and evolved in: on land or at sea. The sheer number of invertebrates and their massive range of habitats and life histories give us a wider diversity of species, which means a greater number of specimens to study.
Because of threats like climate change, habitat loss, and pollution, inverts all over the world are experiencing an alarming decline in their population. Research collections help us keep a record of the natural world and allow us to study long-term change for groups of special interest like pollinators or decomposers.
Terrestrial invertebrates (inverts that live on land) hold the greatest amount of diversity on earth, yet are some of the most understudied groups in biology. They serve as critical components of most food webs, often influencing the health of entire terrestrial ecosystems.
With nearly 1.8 million specimens, our terrestrial invertebrate collection serves as one of the largest repositories of information for Southern California and the Baja California Peninsula. The collection holds 1 million pinned specimens and close to 800,000 ethanol-preserved specimens. But that’s not all—our team is expanding its genetic collection to help identify known species, discover and describe new ones, provide evolutionary insight, and inform their conservation.
Though we have a massive diversity of specimens in the collection, the best represented taxonomic orders are Neuroptera, Lepidoptera, and Coleoptera. One of the most actively growing parts of the collection is the arachnids.
Marine and aquatic invertebrates can serve as ecosystem engineers, filter water, and are important food sources for fish, marine mammals, and humans. Because of this, marine and aquatic invertebrates play an important role in their ecosystems and are studied by scientists all over the world.
With roughly 5 million specimens, our marine invertebrate collection is the largest and one of the earliest at the Museum, dating back to our founding year in 1874. In addition to having specimens from our mission region, the collection also has global representation and holds specimens from nearly every single country in the world—representing more than 17,000 unique taxonomic groups.
The marine invert collection has specimens that can give us insight into important ecological events like contemporary climate change, historical events like the development of nuclear power plants in Southern California (specifically the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station), and even endangered ecosystems like vernal pools (donated by Dr. Marie Simovich). You can also find gastropods, bivalves, crustaceans, annelids, and soft-bodied mollusks in our collection.
For the most up-to-date information regarding holdings, visit protocols, or loan requirements, please contact the Invertebrate Zoology department by using our contact form under “research”.