Department of Biology

About the Collections

The world is filled with a diverse assortment of organisms. Though scientists have been describing species for hundreds of years, we have hardly scratched the surface of the immense diversity of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria that exist on our planet. Keeping extensive collections of biological specimen allows scientists to study the earth's rich diversity of life. From these collections scientists have learned nearly everything that we know about species' diversity, morphology, anatomy, genetics, and distributions. Additionally, collections provide a window into the past enabling the study of changes in species diversity, body condition, and distribution over time allowing scientists to understand consequences of human impacts, climate change, and species invasions on biological communities.

Biodiversity typically refers to the number of different organisms present in a community or ecosystem. As part of these living systems, humans are dependent on the diversity and richness of organisms that provide ecosystem services such as clean air, water, food, medicines, and shelter. Depletion, degradation, or reduction of these resources would result in a depreciation of the quality of life for human populations. Therefore, it is paramount that we understand the diversity of our world and how we may be impacting the longevity of its resources.

Zoological Holdings