Collections come from all over the world and include representatives of most of the currently recognised fish families. Important parts of the fish collection come from South American and South East Asian freshwaters, and we consequently concentrate fish research in those areas. Of course, we also have a fair representation of Swedish freshwater fish. Currently there are 5,673 catalogued lots with altogether 122,458 specimens from Swedish waters. The most common fish species in the collection are perch (Perca fluviatilis) in 568 jars 5,168 specimens), african lungfish (Protopterus annectens) in 494 jars (6,593 specimens), and roach (Rutilus rutilus) in 545 jars jars (17,090 specimens)
The Swedish Museum of Natural History and its fish collection both date from 1739 when the RoyalSwedishAcademy of Sciences received its first items, among them the egg of a skate. Unfortunately, that specimen is no longer preserved, but the collection holds many other old specimens, dating from the 1740s. Images and information on the old collections are available at the museum's Linnaeus Web Server Today, we estimate that the collection includes more than 400,000 specimens in about 50,000 lots. More than 6,350 species are represented. Through the 1990s cataloguing proceeded using the MUSE collection management software on an MS-DOS platform. Since 2001 we use The Artedian, an application based on MS-Access 2000 for management of ichthyological collections developed at NRM. More than 40,000 lots, including 1,225 types, have been computer catalogued up till June 2004, including more than 375,000 specimens preserved in ethanol (including 7,157 type specimens), 388 skeletons, and 569 alizarin transparencies.
Olavi Grönwall locating jars in theold compactors.
Almost all the collection is preserved in alcohol (75-80% pure ethanol in distilled water). There are a few mounted skeletons, occasional skins, many mounted fishes, alizarin transparencies for particular research projects and some otoliths. The type collection is fairly small. It holds approximately 1,200 lots, totalling 6,500 specimens, including species described mainly by C. Linnaeus, F.A. Smitt, E. Lönnberg, H. Rendahl and S.O. Kullander. The collection derives mostly from expeditions and similar directed collecting during the 20th Century. The staff includes 2 permanent positions (senior curator, senior assistant) . We have several ill-delimited office and lab spaces, with computers, printers, scanner, etc. We are short of microscopes, but can usually find facilities for visiting researchers. Guest rooms are available for a small fee. If you cannot visit us, we will be happy to send the fish on loan to you, but please consider the loan conditions before writing. We also have limited exchange with other institutions. During much of the 1990s collections were moved out from crowded corridors in the north wing of the main building into new quarters at the back of the musem. The new collection building includes an underground storage room providing 7 shelf km, shared with the Invertebrate Department, and above-ground facilities for collection management procedures, complete with alcohol from the tapFind out more:
Top100 pdf file
Loan conditions
Exchange
Senior curator (e-mail)
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