The Biodiversity Research Collections
A library of biodiversity covering the globe and the earth’s ages
The Biodiversity Research Collections of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut reflect the richness of the world’s biodiversity. The vertebrate holdings consist of fish, bird and mammal collections, with a particularly strong emphasis on South American mammals. The invertebrate holdings focus on insects of New England, army ant “guests” and parasites of Connecticut vertebrates and tapeworms from sharks and rays from around the world. In combination, the George Safford Torrey Herbarium and the EEB greenhouses maintain remarkable fossil, preserved and living plant collections with special concentrations in native New England plants and the region’s imperiled and invasive species.
Housed in a state-of-the-art combined collections facility supported with funds from UConn 2000 and the National Science Foundation, these Collections are used actively in education and research. They serve to link UConn scientists and students discovering new species, investigating species extinctions, tracking invasive species and documenting the effects of global climate change, to a worldwide network of biologists and the public.
