The Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) is a research and teaching facility in the Department of Biology of the
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
(UNM).
The museum's collections include
vascular plant
Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They al ...
s,
invertebrates
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
and
vertebrates
Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...
from the
American West
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
, Central and South America, and from throughout the world. It is open to visitors by appointment.
The Museum was said in 1997 to hold the largest collection of frozen tissue samples (85,000) in the western hemisphere and has assisted in the study of emerging zoonotic pathogens such as the
Hantavirus
''Orthohantavirus'' is a genus of single-stranded, enveloped, negative-sense RNA viruses in the family ''Hantaviridae'' within the order ''Bunyavirales''. Members of this genus may be called orthohantaviruses or simply hantaviruses.
Orthohantav ...
and the
Lassa virus
''Lassa mammarenavirus'' (LASV) is an arenavirus that causes Lassa hemorrhagic fever,
a type of viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF), in humans and other primates. ''Lassa mammarenavirus'' is an emerging virus and a select agent, requiring Biosafety ...
.
[Yates, TL, et al. 2002. The econology and evolutionary history of an emergent disease: Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. BioScience 52: 989-998. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052 989:TEAEHO.0.CO;2]
Divisions
Amphibian
Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...
s and
Reptile
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...
s
Arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...
s
Bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s
Fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
es
Genomic Resources
Herbarium
A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study.
The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...
Mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
s
Significant Holdings
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
s
* ''
Ctenomys erikacuellarae'
MSB:Mamm:63391* ''
Monodelphis sanctaerosae
''Monodelphis'' is a genus of marsupials in the family Didelphidae, commonly referred to as short-tailed opossums. They are found throughout South America. , the most recently described species is ''M. vossi''.
Species
* Sepia short-tailed ...
'
MSB:Mamm:237023* ''
Ctenomys lessai'
MSB:Mamm:67111* ''
Tapecomys primus'
MSB:Mamm:239826* ''
Thomasomys andersoni
Anderson's Oldfield mouse (''Thomasomys andersoni'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae
The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and ...
'
MSB:Mamm:238679
Parasite
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...
s
References
External links
Museum of Southwestern Biology- official site
MSB Collections Portal- search the museum's collection database
{{authority control
University museums in New Mexico
University of New Mexico
Natural history museums in New Mexico
Museums in Albuquerque, New Mexico