Museum of Southwestern Biology
Museum of Southwestern Biology

The Museum of Southwestern Biology is a research and teaching facility in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico.

open weekdays 8am - 5pm
visitors welcome by appointment
information for visitors

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phone: (505) 277-1360
fax: (505) 277-1351
museum administrator


CERIA

mailing:
Museum of Southwestern Biology
1 University of New Mexico
MSC03-2020
Albuquerque, NM 87131

shipping:
University of New Mexico
302 Yale Blvd NE
CERIA 83, Room 204
Albuquerque, NM, USA 87131

Divisions of the Museum of Southwestern Biology

The University of New Mexico’s Museum of Southwestern Biology is a research and teaching facility in the Department of Biology of the University of New Mexico. Through its world-class natural history collections, associated databases, and staff expertise, MSB provides significant research infrastructure, meaningful undergraduate experiences, cutting-edge graduate training, and substantial public-service and outreach

herpbutton The Division of Amphibians and Reptiles supports research in functional and evolutionary ecology with an emphasis in the conservation of biological diversity. The division serves as a repository for voucher specimens from studies throughout New Mexico and other areas and curates those specimens and their associated data.
arthropodbutton The Division of Arthropods conducts taxonomic and ecological research on arthropods with an emphasis on the American Southwest, but also including research across the world, collaborating with the Kelly Miller Lab of Insect Systematics for molecular ohylogenetic studies.
birdsbutton The Division of Birds maintains an extensive research collection from all over the world. The largest holdings are from the American Southwest and Peru. It holds a synoptic collection of the birds of New Mexico. It also contains historic specimens of threatened, endangered, and extinct species of North America.
fishesbutton The Division of Fishes has over 63,000 cataloged lots or about 2.5 million specimens of fishes. These collections are used in extensive studies on the life histories and ecology of fishes in the southwestern US desert.
dgrbutton The Division of Genomic Resources is a cryogenic archive of tissue samples from vertebrates, invertebrates, parasites and DNA from other MSB divisions and outside collections. The collection currently contains over 460,000 samples from about 200,000 individuals and is worldwide in scope.
herbariumbutton The Herbarium has a total of about 120,000 accessioned specimens of mainly vascular plants collected in New Mexico and surrounding southwestern states. In addition to the specimen collections, the herbarium has a library, reprint collection, and a laboratory for cytogenetics.
mammalsbutton The Division of Mammals is among the most active research collections in the world and is a hub of research activity and training efforts at the University of New Mexico as witnessed through publications, dissertations, honors theses, grants, volunteer opportunities, and annual growth.
parasitebutton The Division of Parasites main research collection is of North American parasites from mammals and birds and is largely composed of the integrated collection of Dr. Robert and Virginia Rausch. The Rausch collection not only has holdings in the Division of Parasitology, but also the Division of Mammals at MSB.