Anthropology Collection
The Archaeology Laboratory houses over 3 million artifacts and specimens covering 12,000 years
of human settlement in Georgia and the southeast. Stone tools, plant and skeletal remains make
up approximately 40% of the collection. Pottery, in the form of sherds and restored vessels make
up the remainder. This collection is the most comprehensive in the State and is one of the
largest and most important in the Southeast. In addition to artifacts, the collection maintains
extensive data files and records, including the largest and most complete archaeological site
inventory in the state. The Georgia Archaeological Site Files are associated with this
collection.
This Laboratory is part of the Department of Anthropology.
Arthropods Collection
The UGA Collection of Arthropods
(UGCA) includes approximately 1,300,000 pinned specimens. In addition the collection houses significant
alcohol-preserved and slide-mounted collections. More than 70% of the insect material is determined to
species and approximately 60% is from the southeastern United States, as is consistent with our mission
to serve as the primary systematics reference for the state. The UGCA is home to several historically
significant research collections.
The Arthropods Collection is part of the Entomology Department.
Botany Collection
The Department of Plant Biology Herbarium
(GA) is a major regional repository of over 235,000
pressed, dried, and mounted vascular plant samples. It is the most significant research resource
of its kind in Georgia and is one of the largest in the Southeast. Its operations, programs, and
services are national and international in scope. The Herbarium provides a wide range of
important functions. In addition to its role as an educational and research resource, collection
personnel respond to specialized information and identification requests each year from
individuals as well as municipal, state, and federal agencies throughout the nation. The
herbarium's e-mail is ugaherb@plantbio.uga.edu.
The Herbarium is part of the Department of Plant Biology.
Geology Collection
The Geology Collections include the Allard Collection for Economic Geology, the Mineralogy
Collection and the Paleontology Collection.
The Allard Collection for Economic Geology represents a lifetime of collecting by Dr. Gilles
Allard in ore deposits and mines on every continent, and contains over 20,000 specimens.
The collection is now online. It can
be searched by mineralogy, mining district, deposit type, or mine locality.
The Mineralogy Collection is comprised of over 1,500 specimens from around the world.
The Paleontology Collection consists of over 12,000 fossils and casts, including trace fossils
from the Robert W. Frey Collection, modern molluscs from southeastern marine systems, and
Paleozoic fossils from southeastern localities. These collections provide important reference
materials and identification services to various industries and state agencies.
The Geology Collection is part of the Department of Geology.
Herpetology Collection
The Herpetology Collection contains over 46,000 reptile and amphibian specimens and is
particularly strong in the species of the southeastern United States. Organization of the
collection began in 1940. The collection is the repository for specimens associated with
published new county records. The collection contains excellent series of most southeastern
species, including endangered, threatened, and rare species.
Ichthyology Collection
The D. C. Scott Ichthyology Collection contains over 325,000 alcohol-preserved specimens
representing over 825 different species from approximately 100 families. The collection was
begun in the 1940s by Donald C. Scott and, therefore, is of major historical importance. The
collection contains an excellent series of the freshwater fishes of the southeastern United
States, many of which are now endangered, threatened, or rare.
Invertebrate Collection
The Invertebrate Collections include the Thomas Mollusc Collection, the Gray's Reef Invertebrate
Collection and a General (non-insect) Invertebrate Collection. The Thomas Collection contains
more than 25,000 specimens of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial species; including many which
are extinct, endangered or threatened. The Gray's Reef Collection includes approximately 5,550
specimens of invertebrates collected within and adjacent to Gray's Reef National Marine
Sanctuary. Gray's Reef is a live bottom reef located approximately 17 nautical miles east of
Sapelo Island Georgia. The hardbottoms and rock outcrops in this area support unique assemblages
of temperate and tropical marine invertebrates. The General Invertebrate Collection contains
over 3,000 specimens of non-mollusc invertebrates from other areas.
Mammalogy Collection
The Joshua Laerm Mammalogy Collection contains 25,000 specimens including study skins, skeletal
material, and alcohol preserved materials. It was organized in the early 1940s by Eugene P. Odum
and his students. This is one of a select group of mammal collections accredited (1985) by the
American Society of Mammalogists. There are specimens in the collection that date back to the
early 1900's thus providing an historical view of the mammals of the state. The strength of the
collection is in mammals of the southeastern United States.
Mycology Collection
The Julian H. Miller Mycological
Herbarium is an internationally recognized facility (GAM) housing over 30,000 specimens of
fungi from throughout Georgia and the Southeast, as well as other areas of the world. The
collection is particularly rich in ascomycetes of Georgia and the tropical Americas. It serves
as an official repository for major U.S. Department of Agriculture regional research projects.
It is one of the few significant systematic mycological herbaria in the country. The herbarium
also contains an extensive library of references and reprints.
Ornithology Collection
The Ornithology Collection contains 5,650 specimens most of which are study skins. In addition
there are 800 bird egg clutches. This collection was organized in the early 1940's by Eugene P.
Odum and his students. Many of the collection specimens are from previously rural, now largely
urban areas of Georgia. On an international scale, the collection includes a small group of
specimens from Central America collected from areas under siege due to devastation of rain
forests. We also hold rare bird eggs from around the world, including several extremely fine
collections that were previously privately owned. Some of the specimens were collected in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Zooarchaeology Collection
The Zooarchaeology Laboratory maintains a reference collection of over 4,100 skeletal specimens
of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. These specimens are used to identify animal
remains from archaeological and paleontological sites. The Collection has provided numerous
identifications for museums, universities, and government agencies throughout the Southeast as
well as the Caribbean and South America. This is one of very few resources in the southeast that
can provide scientists with post-cranial skeleton reference materials.
This Laboratory is part of the
Department of Anthropology.