Collections

The Crustacea Collection housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is one of the most impressive in the world. There are an estimated 130,000 lots (a term that collection managers and curators use for individual jars of specimens), and each lot may contain from one to several thousand individuals. We estimate that the collection currently includes between 4 and 5 million individual specimens, which makes it the second largest collection in the United States, and fourth largest in the world. Concerning species from the eastern Pacific, which is the primary historical strength of the collection, these collections are the foremost in the world.

Special Strengths

• World-wide representation, especially from Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans.
• Comprehensive holdings of decapod crustaceans.
• Unparalleled diversity of eastern Pacific crustacean holdings due to the incorporation of the former Allan Hancock Collection.
• Currently designated by the California Department of Fish and Game as one of two mandatory repositories for collections of crustaceans collected from vernal (temporary) pools in the state. (Vernal pools, habitats that were once widespread, have been reduced to an estimated 1% of their former extent in California, making our growing collections of branchiopod crustaceans irreplaceable).
• Numerous environmental survey collections over the past 40 years in a range of depths along Oregon, California, and Mexico.
• Some extinct crustacean taxa found in no other collection in the world.
• Numerous type specimens and vouchered specimens of crustaceans from marine hydrothermal vents, one of the most fascinating biomes on the planet, including primary and secondary types of crabs, shrimps, and amphipod crustaceans.
• The collection supports an internationally recognized center of excellence for research on the vast holdings of marine crabs and shrimps, which compose an estimated 70% of the collection. The collections of marine crabs are especially significant, incomparable, and irreplaceable.
• Extensive holdings of isopod and cirripede (barnacle) crustaceans. The Isopoda holdings alone include more than 370 primary and secondary type lots, with geographic representation world-wide but focused primarily on the eastern Pacific.