About the Biodiversity Museum

The San Diego State University Biodiversity Museum serves as a repository for biological specimens and an educational center for research, teaching, and community outreach. The Museum's main attraction is the biological collections, comprising over 100,000 physical specimens of birds, fish, mammals, plants, algae, reptiles, amphibians, and terrestrial arthropods.

These specimens are used as teaching tools and research vouchers. Furthermore, the museum features tissue collections of thousands of samples employed in genomic studies. The Biodiversity Museum's Genomics Lab is a shared facility that is used by faculty and students for studies to understand genetic diversity within and among species.

The museum provides imaging systems, microscopes, and computer resources that undergraduate and graduate students, along with faculty members of SDSU's Department of Biology, use for research projects. In addition to student research projects, the museum provides special credit courses in specimen curation and specimen databasing.

Our Collections

Birds

The Ornithology Collection contains over 4,000 specimens, with the earliest dated to the late 1800s.

Genomic Collections

Our combined collections contain genetic material for over 6,500 birds and over 12,000 arachnids.

Reptiles & Amphibians

The Herpetological Collection contains over 14,000 specimens of reptiles and amphibians.

Mammals

The Mammalogy Collection contains over 3,000 specimens, the oldest dating to the 1800s. 

Plants, Algae, & Lichens

The Herbarium has over 26,000 specimens, 500 algae,  and a growing collection of bryophytes and lichens. 

Terrestrial Arthropods

The Terrestrial Arthropods Collection houses over 50,000 pinned and alcohol-preserved specimens.