curation
Herpetology Collections, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
As Curator, I am responsible for the care and use of the Herpetology Research Collections at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. This invaluable resource, established in the late 1800s, contains approximately 300,000 preserved scientific specimens (>104,000 catalog numbers) and approximately 7,500 vouchered tissues of amphibians and reptiles from around the world. The collection has exceptionally strong holdings from North Carolina (>80% of the collection) and the Southeast U.S., with additionally strong holdings from Southeast Asia, Central Africa and Cuba. The collection is managed by Jeffrey C. Beane.
Our current primary activities include assimilation of large collection acquisitions from the Charleston Museum and Appalachian State University; improvements to the genetic resources collection, especially taxonomic and geographic sampling from North Carolina; and efforts to complete the georeferencing and databasing of the entire collection.
Online database
Search the holdings of our herpetology research collection online database.
The collection has an immeasurable number of uses, but primarily serves to document geographic ranges, past and present; to identify and describe species; and to infer the natural history of species, for example, their diet, reproduction, and growth rates. We regularly host visitors and loan material to researchers who have a need to study the collection. I view a good curator to be one who achieves the balance between the long-term preservation of the collection and its use by the community.
Collection publications
Check out our Google Scholar profile for a list of publications that include our specimens.