Primary Teaching Collection
We maintain a teaching collection of several thousand specimens representing over a hundred fish families. Students examine, compare and learn to identify these during our Systematics of Fishes (FW316) and Ichthyology (FW315) courses. Students on the Corvallis campus interact with the physical specimens during weekly labs, and Ecampus students and those on the Corvallis campus enjoy access to digital images and 3D scans of the specimens in a virtual specimen collection.
Ichthyoplankton Collection
Among the fishes that Oregon State University Ichthyology Collection absorbed from the School of Oceanography was a large ichthyoplankton collection that formed the basis for many important studies of fisheries management, larval ecology and taxonomy studies. These early holdings are linked to Sally L. Richardson, one of the first women in the field of larval fish research. Students interact with these specimens in our two graduate-level courses on ichthyoplankton diversity and identification.