Dating to the early 20^th century, the Florida Museum Herpetology Collection is worldwide in scope (>140 countries) and houses more than 240,000 specimens/specimen lots.* It is ranked as the largest in the southeastern United States and ninth-largest in North America.

The collection includes fluid-preserved, cleared and stained and skeletal specimens, histological materials, 35 mm slides and photographs, digital images and bioacoustical recordings. We also have about 2,400 tissue samples stored at -184˚C in the Genetic Resources Repository.*

Exhibit Objects

Significant collections

Herpetology skeletal collection

The skeletal collection contains about 12,200 specimens, representing approximately 1,000 species from 96 countries.* This collection, which contains skeletons, prepared skins and dry specimens, is among the largest in North America, with particular strengths in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Crocodilian collection

The crocodilian collection contains about 2,000 specimens representing all but two of the 24 living crocodilian species worldwide.*

Turtle collection

The turtle collection of more than 16,200 specimens is the third-largest in North America and contains important sea turtle collections from Archie Carr and tortoise collections from Walter Auffenberg.*

Introduced species collection

The collection of nonnative amphibians and reptiles contains about 11,000 specimens from Florida alone, making it the largest herpetological collection of North American invasive species.* It is the leading source of information for tracking the invasion and distribution of these species throughout the southeastern United States.

*Collection numbers were accurate at the time the exhibit was on display in 2017. Please visit the collection website or collection database for updated holdings information.