California Academy of Science - Ichthyology (CAS-Ichthyology)

The Department of Ichthyology houses one of the largest and most important research collections of its kind in the world. There are nearly 200,000 cataloged lots (jars) containing roughly 1.2 million specimens, with many thousands of backlogged specimens still to be processed. There are representatives of over11,000 nominal species of fishes in the collection, representing nearly a third of those known to science. The strengths of our holdings lie principally in marine fishes of the western and central Pacific, California, and freshwater fishes from South America and southeastern Asia. Our older historic collections from North America and the large number of type specimens are of particular importance to the ichthyological community.