Primary strengths of the VIMS Invertebrate Collection include large holdings of mostly marine and some tidal freshwater invertebrates from the full range of the U.S. East Coast from Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as some specimens from Antarctica and other places worldwide. An extensive part of the collection is estuarine specimens from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, represented not only by recently acquired specimens, but also by strong historical sampling dating back to the 1960s. The collection currently exceeds 6,500 taxa and over 25,000 specimens, with continuing growth. While the majority of the holdings are catalogued (3,800 lots), recently acquired specimens (2,700 lots) have not been catalogued yet and will be catalogued as they are digitized. Strengths of the collections reflect the research of current and past researchers at VIMS and highlights the research being done in the Chesapeake Bay; however, the collection is under-utilized because the records of specimens in the collection are not maintained in a searchable digital database. The collection is currently being digitized with support from a NSF grant: Documenting marine biodiversity through Digitization of Invertebrate collections (DigIn).
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Metadata last updated on 2025-02-01 22:01:29.0
