All information found on this site falls under the INHS's Internet License Agreement.
(NOTE: Illinois specific lists are marked with )

CURATORS & STAFF

Dr. Lawrence M. Page, Ichthyology Curator Emeritus
Dr. Marlis R. Douglas, Ichthyology Curator
Dr. Michael E. Retzer, Collection Manager
Dr. Christopher Taylor, Ichthyology Staff
Jeremy Tiemann, Ichthyology Staff
Christine A. Mayer, Database Manager

ABOUT THE FISH COLLECTION

A large part of the Illinois Natural History Fish Collection comes from specimens collected from 1880 to 1905 for S.A. Forbes and R.E. Richardson's "The Fishes of Illinois" published in 1908 and from specimens collected from 1950 to 1978 for P.W. Smith's "The Fishes of Illinois" published in 1979. Thousands of specimens have been added from other areas of North and South America in the past few decades. The collection contains representatives from 47 of the 50 states and many countries including: Angola, Antigua, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, England, Guyana, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Thailand, Trinidad Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. The geographic scope of the collection is about 51% from Illinois, 30% from elsewhere in North America, 18% from South America, and 1% from the rest of the world, including Antarctica.

The collection contains over 841,000 catalogued specimens, which makes it about the 15th largest collection of preserved fishes, and the 6th largest collection of Neotropical fishes in North America. Represented are about 170 families and over 2,400 species. The value of the collection is greatly enhanced by the large number of old specimens, many of which were collected in the late 1800's from areas where they no longer occur. The type collection contains 1220 specimens representing 93 nominal species. Name-bearing type material consists of 31 holotypes (37 species), 5 lectotypes, and 7 series of syntypes (39 specimens). Additional type material includes paratypes of 125 nominal species (1,198 specimens).

Since 1970, the Illinois Natural History Survey Fish Collection has loaned, gifted, or exchanged almost 50,000 specimens.

SPECIES LISTS, DATABASES & DISTRIBUTIONS

• INHS Fish Collection Database
•  Illinois Fish Web Guide (with dynamically generated distribution maps)
•  Fishes of Illinois with Distribution Maps
•  Illinois Fish Species List

OUTREACH

Please phone Mike Jeffords (217) 333-5986 for more information.

LINKS

• What is Ichthyology?
• The Catalog of Fishes --California Academy of Sciences