By Rachel Alsheikh
. . .
On the UC Davis campus, past the Watershed Sciences Building, past the cows and the Arboretum, there’s a nondescript building with a locked room. It’s a secret treasure trove: shelves upon shelves stacked with more than 8,000 jars of fish specimens preserved in ethanol. At over 30,000 fishes, it’s the fourth largest ichthyological research collection in the state, and it belongs to the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology (MWFB). If you’ve studied fish at UC Davis, you’ve almost certainly encountered the MWFB’s teaching specimens before, in a class like WFC120L or at an event like Picnic Day. A museum’s selected teaching specimens and its specimens on display get to meet the public that way, but few people have the opportunity to appreciate full behind-the-scenes research collections. Today, we’ll give you a sneak peek inside.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Center for Watershed Sciences co-founder, Dr. Peter Moyle established the Ichthyology Collection in 1972. It has been a time capsule for research ever since, spanning not only Dr. Moyle’s career but also those of many of his students. The resulting collection is one of the most modern representations of California freshwater and estuarine species at any institution, an important resource in the keeping of natural history. Part of the Fish Collection also consists of orphaned collections from other institutions, including the large San Jose State University collection of nearshore marine fishes, which was started by Professor Emeritus Dr. Jerry Smith, one of Peter Moyle’s first graduate students. And the Fish Collection doesn’t end there, with specimens from across the country, Hawaii to Alaska, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Antarctica, and more.
These specimens don’t sit idle, they actively contribute to research. They have helped scientists reassess fish taxonomy, clarify species phylogenies, and determine changing distributions. Their tissues have been used for genomic analysis. Some of them have even been featured on the WaterBlog for their importance as type specimens, the permanent vouchers used to describe a new species or subspecies. The oldest museum fish collections are nearly two centuries old (see the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History’s archive of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1942): it’s impossible to predict everything collections-based research will discover in the future. Needless to say, we’ll be working with this collection to help find out.
To learn more about the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, please visit mwfb.ucdavis.edu. You can also contact mwfb@ucdavis.edu or ralsheikh@ucdavis.edu.
You can follow the MWFB on Instagram @museumofwfb.
If you’re interested in supporting the Fish Collection, you can contact us or do so here.
About the Author
Rachel Alsheikh is a Museum Specialist at the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology. She has been working at the MWFB since she was an undergraduate student. When she graduated in 2020, she also began working as the Project Manager for the Center for Watershed Sciences. She loves museums and museum specimens.
Further Reading
From the MWFB
California’s Freshwater Fishes. Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology.
Moyle, P. B., Buckmaster, N., and Su, Y. Taxonomy of the Speckled Dace Species Complex (Cypriniformes: Leuciscidae, Rhinichthys) in California, USA. Zootaxa. 2023; Vol. 5249, No. 5: 501–539.
Moyle, P. B. and Campbell, M. A. Cryptic Species of Freshwater Sculpin (Cottidae: Cottus) in California, USA. Zootaxa. 2022; Vol. 5154, No. 5: 501–527.
Baumsteiger, J. and Moyle, P. B. A reappraisal of the California Roach/Hitch (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae, Hesperoleucus/Lavinia) species complex. Zootaxa. 2019; Vol. 4543, No. 2: 221–240.
About natural history collections
The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collections of Natural History Museums by Christopher Kemp, Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey, Curators: Behind the Scenes of Natural History Museums by Lance Grande.
Holmes, et. al. Natural history collections as windows on evolutionary processes. Molecular Ecology. 2016; Vol. 25, No. 16: 864-881.
* To celebrate 15 years of the California WaterBlog during this season of giving, consider making a gift to the Center to help us create more meaningful opportunities for students across our programs.
Leave a Reply