Northern Michigan University

Description

The Biology Department houses zoological collections that cover the breadth of diversity of the animal Tree of Life, ranging across most major groups of invertebrate and vertebrate animals. The collections have particular strengths in the fauna of the Great Lakes Region. They are maintained by faculty curators and student curatorial assistants, and support teaching and research in the Department and beyond. Vertebrate collections: All major lineages of vertebrate organisms are represented in the vertebrate collections, including fluid-preserved fishes, amphibians and reptiles, bird skins and eggs, and mammal skins, skulls, skeletons, and frozen tissues. Faculty curators include Alec Lindsay (birds; >300 specimens), Jill Leonard (fishes), and Kurt Galbreath (mammals; >1700 specimens). Invertebrate collections: These are the largest and most diverse of the Department’s collections. Cumulatively numbering in the tens of thousands of specimens, the invertebrate collections include freshwater decapods (e.g., crabs, crayfish), aquatic and terrestrial insects (including Luther West’s personal entomology collection), Lake Superior wave-zone invertebrates, freshwater sponges, gastropods, leeches, and parasites. Faculty curators of the major invertebrate collections are Neil Cumberlidge (decapods) and Mac Strand (other invertebrates).

Contacts

TECHNICAL_POINT_OF_CONTACT
David Bloom
Telephone: +01 510 859 7773
email: dbloom@vertnet.org

POINT_OF_CONTACT
Kurt Galbreath
Telephone: +01 906 227 1586
email: kgalbrea@nmu.edu

Northern Michigan University
Biology Department, Northern Michigan University, 2119 New Science Facility
Marquette
49855
Michigan
US
email: kgalbrea@nmu.edu