Amphibian and Reptile Collections

 The collection database contains over 278,000 catalog records as of April 2011. The online collection database has fewer catalog records and is not current to 2011. Migration to a new database platform within the next few months will allow online access to all catalog records. The catalog records indicate the nature and extent of our collection but should not be treated as primary data. Although taxonomy, specimen identifications and associated data are constantly reviewed, errors such as outdated names, mistaken identifications and erroneous collection event information do occur in our database. Investigators should verify identifications by examination of specimens. For special requests, corrections, comments or suggestions, please e-mail Alan Resetar or call him at 1-312-665-7768.  

The names on the country scroll bar list are current names. Exceptions: 1) Bornean holdings are under Borneo-M (Malaysian Borneo), Borneo-I (Indonesian Borneo) or Borneo, New Guinea is handled similarly; 2) Continent or island names are used if the original records contained only this name or if the specific locality could not be placed within a current country.  

When searching for the holdings of a state or province, be sure to scroll to alternate names. The state/province scroll bar list contains current and historic names. For example, early collections from Sabah are also listed under the names - British North Borneo and North Borneo. Words such as province (Prov), county (Co), parish (Par) and district (Dist) are uniformly abbreviated in the state/province and county/parish/district field. Use these abbreviations when searching. For example, enter Cook Co not Cook County. For foreign countries, the abbreviations for political subdivisions may or may not be present, depending on the way the collector, donor and/or cataloger recorded them.  

The country, state/province and county/parish/district in the search results date to when the specimens were collected, procured or cataloged. The purpose for this is to present the locality information as the original collectors, donors and/or catalogers recorded it.  

When searching for a type specimen, enter the name used in the original description.