Museum of Zoology

EEB Museums Spring 2026 Newsletter: Inside the Collections

University of Michigan Museum of Zoology The Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) stewards more than 15 million specimens from around the world. Each specimen reflects the collective work of our global community, linking the past, present, and future of biodiversity discovery.

Division of Mollusks The Mollusk Division holds nearly 5 million specimens, making it the largest university collection of its kind in the United States. It’s especially well known for its freshwater and land snails, with specimens that span an incredible range of species and places. Many of the freshwater samples were collected before industrial development led to widespread declines and extinctions, which makes them an irreplaceable record of past biodiversity.

Division of Fishes The Division of Fishes of the Museum of Zoology is a research resource and teaching center dedicated to the study of fish evolution, phylogeny, distribution, ecology, and behavior. We have about 3.5 million catalogued specimens available for study. The collections are rich in specimens from the U.S., Mexico, Asia, Japan, the Neotropics, and Africa.

Division of Birds The Bird Division is a collection of resources for people who conduct research on or need information about birds. The research collections, with 215,000 bird specimens, is one of the largest in the world. The Bird Division also houses the expansive library of the Wilson Ornithological Society. The faculty, staff, and students conduct research on the evolutionary histories, behavior, ecology and conservation of a wide variety of birds using museum collections, molecular techniques, and field studies.

Division of Reptiles & Amphibians With more than 500,000 vouchered specimens, the Division of Reptiles & Amphibians maintains the second-largest herpetological research collection in the world. The collection is global in scope and includes an unparalleled range of type specimens, thematic sub-collections, and accessory datasets on ecology, anatomy, and genomics.

Division of Insects The Insect Division houses a world-class collection with over 4.5 million specimens from all over the globe. An emphasis on specific taxonomic groups has produced outstanding collections of the Acari, Orthoptera, and Odonata, and to a lesser extent, the Homoptera, Coleoptera and Lepidoptera.

Division of Mammals The Mammal Division of the Museum of Zoology was established in 1837, and has grown steadily to its current size, with over 150,000 specimens. An important feature of the mammal collection at the Museum of Zoology is our emphasis on non-traditional specimens; that is, preparations that go beyond or replace the traditional skin and skull.

Come Step Inside the UMMZ The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) stewards more than 15 million specimens from around the world. Each specimen reflects the collective work of our global community, linking the past, present, and future of biodiversity discovery.

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Recent News

UMMZ Spotlight: Discovering Life on the Deep-Sea Floor

Deep beneath the surface off Curaçao, EEB Ph.D. student Yu Kai Tan descended in a submersible to investigate a mysterious deep-sea snail rumored to hover above the ocean floor. What he found instead revealed a hidden world of unexpected biodiversity.

The UMMZ Collection Makes Wing Evolution Discovery Possible

“We are working hard to curate these specimens and make them available to the next generations of researchers,” said Ben Winger, senior author, associate curator at the Museum of Zoology and associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

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Research Feature

Faculty Publication Spotlight: Dr. L. Lacey Knowles in Nature Reviews Biodiversity

In this Review, the co-authors explore the coupled evolution of Amazonian rivers and biodiversity associated with terrestrial and seasonally flooded environments, integrating geological, climatic, ecological and genetic evidence.

Please Note: The Museum of Zoology is a research facility. It is not usually open to the public. Please refer to the Museum of Natural History website if you wish to visit.

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