Lake Thoreau Environmental Center
Ichthyology Collection at the Natural History Collections Building
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The ichthyological collections at USM support a variety of research and education
needs. The collection is split among the Hattiesburg (primarily freshwater) and Gulf
Coast Research Lab (GCRL; primarily estuarine and marine) campuses. The majority of
the freshwater collection was collected and cataloged by Dr. Stephen T. Ross and his
students from 1974 until 2004. By 1998, the collection contained a total of 20,325
lots and a large uncurated backlog from Black Creek and Horn Island, as well as larval
collections from a variety of sources. At that time, Dr. Ross and Dr. Stuart G. Poss
(former curator at GCRL) received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to process
the backlog of material and improve the overall curation of the collections. The collection
was improved by: 1) cataloging backlogged material into both USM collections, 2) installing
new shelving and storage infrastructure, and 3) transfer lots from 45% isopropyl to
70% ethanol at Hattiesburg. By the end of the project in 2001, a total of 7,200 new
lots had been cataloged and the entire collection is now stored in 70% ethanol.
The Hattiesburg collection continued to grow under the direction of Dr. Ross until his retirement in the spring of 2004 at which time the collection held approximately 28,000 lots. The collection continues to grow at a rate of about 1,500 cataloged lots per year and continues to grow. By 2007 the continued growth had nearly filled all available space. The current curators of the collection (Dr. Jake Schaefer at Hattiesburg campus and Sara LeCroy at GCRL) have received NSF funding (along with generous support from the College of Science and Technology and the Department of Biological Sciences) to again improve the collection, which was moved to Lake Thoreau Environmental Center's Natural History Collections Building in 2013.
Current Collection Statistics
- >85,000 total lots
- > 1,800,000 specimens
- > 10,500 total sites
- > 4,500 total taxa
For more questions please contact Dr.%20Jake%20Schaefer, Curator