Fishes and Marine Invertebrates

Collections of fishes, amphibians, reptiles and marine invertebrates:

A set of collections presently consisting of over 8,000 lots of marine invertebrates and close to 5,000 lots of marine and freshwater fishes has been housed at the Museum since the 1970s. James Morrow, Ron Smith, and several other University of Alaska researchers established and built the nucleus of the collection. Amphibians and reptiles (Herpetology) are in a separate catalog of about 300 lots. Most of the data associated with both collections are in the Arctos database, however a significant number of records for marine invertebrates housed in the museum’s collections remain to be incorporated into this electronic resource.

These collections were under the care of Nora Foster until 1998 and of Dr. Gordon Haas until 2006. Andrés López joined the Museum of the North as curator of fishes in the Fall of 2008. Recent additions to the collection include valuable voucher specimens used by Dr. Katherine Mecklenburg in her Arctic marine fish biodiversity research and in the development of the comprehensive Fishes of Alaska volume.  Thanks to collaborative relationships with State and Federal agencies, the Aquatic collections are continuously growing and providing an improved representation of Alaska’s aquatic faunas.