Natural History Museum

The biological collections at the University of Central Oklahoma contain 90,000 cataloged specimens and are located in the Howell Hall Lab Annex Building. These specimens are used for teaching, research, and outreach. The Natural History Museum (NHM) is accredited by the American Society of Mammalogists and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Many of the collections are part of collaborative digitization Symbiota Portals (CSVC, MyCoPortal, TORCH).

Vertebrates

The vertebrates collection provides a source for teaching and learning about vertebrate organisms, especially those in central Oklahoma. It provides a catalogue for the identification of species in the region and makes this information available to students, researchers, and the general public. With faculty licensed to collect, UCO is an official repository for salvaged vertebrate specimens. The UCO mammal, reptile, fish, and bird collections are listed in the Consortium of Small Vertebrate Collections.

Invertebrates

The invertebrate collection houses the unique aquatic invertebrate collection of Dr. David Bass' Caribbean research. It has been an active faculty research collection that, along with graduate student research activities in Oklahoma and the Caribbean, continues to grow by hundreds of specimens each year. The entomology collection is comprised of thousands of terrestrial specimens, primarily from Oklahoma, including an extensive pollination research collection.

Herbarium

The UCO Herbarium is listed in the Index Herbariorum. It provides sources for teaching and learning about plants and fungi, especially those in central Oklahoma. The Herbarium provides a catalogue for the identification of the biodiversity of plants in the region and makes this information available to students, researchers, and the general public. The Fungi collection is part of the Mycology Collections Portal data collection effort (through Symbiota and Integrated Digital Biocollections) to digitize mycological collections in North America. The plant collection is part of the Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria (TORCH) portal allowing access to millions of specimens from over 50 herbaria.

Curatorial Techniques

• Collection and Curation of Fleshy Fungi
• Standard Operating Procedure for Vascular Plants
• Standard Operating Procedure for UCO Bird Collection
• Standard Operating Procedure for UCO Fungi Collection
• Standard Operating Procedure for UCO Herptology Collection
• Standard Operating Procedure for UCO Mammology Collection
• Standard Operating Procedure for UCO Tissue Collection
• Standard Operating Procedure for UCO Invertebrate Collection

Contacts:

Lynda Loucks, M.S., Director/Outreach Coordinator
Wayne Lord, Ph.D., Entomology Collection
Vicki Jackson, Ph.D., Mammal and Bird Collections
Paul Stone, Ph.D., Reptile, Amphibian, and Fish Collections
David Bass, Ph.D., Invertebrate Collection
Jenna Messick, Ph.D., Vascular Plants Collection
Clark Ovrebo, Ph.D., Fungi and Lichen Collections
Michelle Haynie, Ph.D., Frozen Tissues Collection