Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard-MCZ)

The Museum of Comparative Zoology was founded in 1859 on the concept that collections are an integral and fundamental component of zoological research and teaching. This more than 150-year-old commitment remains a strong and proud tradition for the MCZ. The present-day MCZ contains over 21-million specimens in ten research collections which comprise one of the world's richest and most varied resources for studying the diversity of life. The museum serves as the primary repository for zoological specimens collected by past and present Harvard faculty-curators, staff and associates conducting research around the world. As a premier university museum and research institution, the specimens and their related data are available to researchers of the scientific and museum community
Contacts: Breda M. Zimkus, bzimkus@oeb.harvard.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Data snapshot of local collection database
Last Update: 2 October 2024
Digital Metadata: EML File
Rights Holder: Copyright © 2016 President and Fellows of Harvard College The MCZ does not guarantee the accuracy of these data. Individual researchers should verify individual records by making direct reference to corresponding museum specimens.
Access Rights: http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/privacy/user.html
Collection Statistics
  • 459,686 specimen records
  • 368,093 (80%) georeferenced
  • 6,059 (1%) with images (24,865 total images)
  • 295,035 (64%) identified to species
  • 1,804 families
  • 6,785 genera
  • 31,426 species
  • 32,841 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Geographic Distribution
Click on the specimen record counts within the parenthesis to return the records for that term
This project is supported by the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology through an award titled "Advancing Revisionary Taxonomy and Systematics: Integrative Research and Training in Tropical Taxonomy" (DEB-1456674). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.