Collections

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is in the middle of a transition and some of the collections’ data are currently not available. If you need information, please contact our curatorial staff directly. Thank you for your understanding!

Our specimens are organized in six collections. These collections are the centrepiece of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and were each started by a different collector, some as early as the 1910s. Over the decades, the collections were added to by myriad researchers, and grew to contain over two million specimens. In 2001, researchers at the Biodiversity Research Centre and within the departments of Botany and Zoology envisioned a building that would facilitate interdisciplinary work on biodiversity, house UBC’s biodiversity researchers and collections, and contain a public natural history museum. 

Please note that only part of the Museum’s collections is available for public display. If you have a specific interest in one of  the collections, please contact our curatorial staff.

Cowan Tetrapod Collection

Over 40,000 specimens representing over 2,500 species

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Marine Invertebrate Collection

Several thousand specimens representing the major lineages of invertebrate animals

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Herbarium

The largest herbarium in western Canada, holding more than 650,000 specimens, some dating back as far as 1804

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Spencer Entomological Collection

Over half a million pinned specimens, 75,000 alcohol-preserved specimens and 25,000 specimens on slides showcase BC and the Yukon’s spectacular

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Fish Collection

Over 300,000 specimens and over 50,000 DNA and tissue samples

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Fossil Collection

The fossil collection was started in 1924 and contains over 200,000 specimens

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