| The Department of Ecology & Evolutionary
Biology maintains five zoological collections that play essential roles
in support of teaching and research at the University of Arizona. All collections
are housed on the main campus in Biological Sciences East on the first
and basement floors. They are organized and managed as five units: Invertebrates,
Fishes, Amphibians & Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals. Each collection
has a faculty curator and/or a collection manager, and one or more student
assistants. Holdings are strongly focused on the fauna of southwestern
North America, especially Arizona and northwestern Mexico. These collections
are Arizona's largest and among the nation's largest regionally-oriented
collections. They represent an irreplaceable resource of material and information
on the unique biota of the southwestern United States and northwestern
Mexico. The zoological collections support research by University of Arizona
faculty, students, and visiting scientists by providing access to study
specimens and serving as repositories for voucher specimens. Specimens
are available for loan to accredited national and international institutions
for both systematic and ecological research.
Zoological collections are heavily used in teaching many undergraduate
and graduate courses including Invertebrate Zoology (ECOL 480/580), Ichthyology
(ECOL 482/582), Herpetology (ECOL 483/583), Ornithology (ECOL 484/584),
Wildlife Management/Avian Species (WFSC 546), Mammalogy (ECOL 485/585),
Wildlife Management/Mammalian Species (WFSC 544), Marine Discovery (ECOL
497a), Vertebrate Diversity (ECOL 303), Natural History of the Southwest
(ECOL 130), and Marine Biology (ECOL 183). These collections also support
numerous on-campus and off-campus outreach programs, and collection personnel
serve the public by identifying specimens and providing information and
consultation on respective groups.
Note that through the EEB Collections we are announcing a new Biodiversity
Informatics Initiative to foster participation in collection-based research
by University of Arizona undergraduates. See the Research Opportunities
for Undergraduates pages.
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