Welcome to the Division of Mammals :: Museum of Southwestern Biology (original) (raw)

Welcome to the Division of Mammals

The Division of Mammals is a premier research collection, ranking among the three largest worldwide and largest university-based mammal collection. Containing > 340,000 cataloged specimens (representing >1,800 species), the Division is a hub of research and training at UNM as witnessed through annual publications (>90), dissertations, honor’s theses, grants, annual growth and engagement in issues important to society (e.g., pathogen emergence, climate change, habitat loss, biological annihilation, etc.). Collections are temporally deep (dating from the late 1800’s) and geographically world-wide in scope, with particularly strong holdings from western North America, Beringia, Central Asia, and Latin America. MSB Mammals pioneered the concept of “holistic specimens," whereby traditional skin, skull, and post-cranial skeletons, are complemented by up to seven tissues (heart, kidney, liver, lung, spleen, muscle, blood), karyotypes, and comprehensive sampling of ectoparasites (e.g., fleas, ticks) and endoparasites (e.g., nematodes, cestodes, gut microbiomes). We emphasize site intensive, geographically extensive sampling of entire communities to provide the most powerful and integrative perspectives of change across temporal and spatial scales. Use of the collection has increased tremendously through our web-accessible database Arctos, reflecting a new trend in environmental informatics and genomics research that ties other Big Data resources (e.g., GenBank, GoogleEarth, IsoBank, Morphosource) to natural history collections.

	Our specimens are fully searchable through our online database Arctos.
	Checklist of New Mexico Mammals
	A list of publications that cite Mammal specimens or were authored by Division staff and associates is kept up to date on our Google Scholar profile.
	See what we do on a day-to-day basis. Follow us on Facebook.
	Major holdings of the Division of Mammals
	Scans of catalogs and field notes from many of our collectors are available on our website and in LoboVault
	Help support the Division of Mammals.