About the Ichthyology Collection

A scientific image of a fish

The earliest specimens were collected in 1912, with a few collections from the 1930s and 1940s. There was significant growth in 1950–1980, mainly due to Clark Hubbs and his students. The bulk of our specimens (80%) are Texas freshwater fishes, with all Texas specimens (freshwater, saltwater, and brackish water) accounting for 87% of the collection. The overall marine holdings, primarily from the Gulf of Mexico, consist of 7% of all localities. Holdings from other U. S. states or territories include Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, 30 other states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Twenty non-U. S. countries are represented and account for 9% of the collection, with significant holdings from Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Zambia. The collection continues to rapidly grow with many of incoming specimens deriving from Dean Hendrickson and his students, museum staff, various researchers, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the National Park Service.

The collection is home to the Fishes of Texas Project, a website and database documenting the distributions of Texas fishes with modern and historic occurrence data, derived primarily from specimens.

Learn more about our collection, see summaries, and explore our data on GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility).