TNHC Ichthyology Collection

Study Extent

We have no restrictions related to collection locality and accept specimens collected globally, but are primarily interested in specimens from Texas and neighboring Mexican and U.S. states. Specimens must be legally collected. No restrictions on date of collection.

Sampling

Specimens are collected by various and often undocumented means. In many cases that information, when available, is recorded in our database.

Quality Control

Historically the collection has had a single data validation step after cataloging, in which the catalog data was checked against the verbatim specimen labels. Errors have also been corrected after being pointed out by researchers using the data and specimens. Since the inception of the Fishes of Texas Project (www.fishesoftexas.org) in 2006, we implemented a more systematic approach to detecting potential species determination and data entry errors. Starting in 2013 we’ll also be photographing all incoming specimens and associated labels as they are cataloged and those photos will be made public so users of our data will be able to compare the raw information to our database.

Method steps

1. Incoming specimens are accessioned, transferred to 70% ethanol (if needed), sorted, identified to lowest possible taxonomic level (usually species), cataloged into a Specify database which assigns each lot a unique catalog number, labels are printed, information on printed label is verified against handwritten labels in jar for accuracy and inserted into specimen jars.

The Ichthyology Collection contains 1,796 species from 794 genera in 267 families, in 52 orders (following Nelson, 2006).

1. Actinopterygii
   rank: class
2. Elasmobranchii
   rank: class

Most of our specimens are from the freshwaters of Texas, with some marine collections from the Gulf of Mexico. Our Texas and Gulf of Mexico holdings account for 72% of our collection. The collection also contains significant holdings from 25 countries including: Mexico (2700 lots), the freshwaters of Costa Rica (1372 lots), Venezuela (1969 lots) and Zambia (1030 lots). We have specimens from other parts of the United States as well—AK, AL, AR (475 lots), AZ, CA, CO, FL (650 lots), IL, KA, KT, LA, MI, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OK, OR, Puerto Rico, SC, Virgin Is., WA, and WI. Eighty-two percent of our records, primarily those located in Texas, are now georeferenced.