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 at the University of New Mexico. Ranking second largest worldwide, we are the largest university-based mammal collection with > 345,000 cataloged specimens representing >1,600 species. Our 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. We maintain a close partnership with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, which promotes public engagement through their popular exhibit galleries.

The Mammal Division serves as an active hub of research and training at UNM, as evidenced by annual averages of >100 loans to other institutions and investigators, >120 publications, and >10 completed graduate dissertations and undergraduate honor’s theses. Developed primarily with support from federal grants and contracts, the collection grows by >5000 specimens annually and publications based on these specimens are highly cited (>7,500 annually). Most importantly, our specimen-based research engages critical societal issues such as pathogen emergence, climate change, habitat loss, biological conservation, environmental contamination, among others.

We pioneered the concept of “holistic specimens," whereby traditional skin, skull, and post-cranial skeletons, are complemented with multiple frozen 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 intensive site sampling across extensive geographic areas in an effort to document community interactions and provide powerful, integrative perspectives of change across temporal and spatial scales.

The use of the collection has increased tremendously through our web-accessible database Arctos. Increased interest reflects a new trend in environmental informatics and genomics research that connects natural history collections with other Big Data resources, such as GenBank, GoogleEarth, IsoBank, MorphoSource, and SketchFab. Our partnership with the Arctos consortium promotes the global museum, a biodiversity nexus for research by state agencies (NM Dept of the Environment and Health), federal natural resource agencies (e.g., USGS, USFWS, USFS), and international health organizations (e.g., CDC, Panama’s Gorgas Institute)

	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.