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Welcome to the
USGS Biological Surveys Collection, Albuquerque
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Arid Lands
Field Station has curatorial
responsibility for more than 45,000 Federal specimens of vertebrates that are housed in the Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) at the University of
New Mexico. The collection originally
was established to support food habits studies in the 1920s by the Bureau of Biological Survey and now serves as a repository for specimens taken in support
of Federal research in the West. Included are holdings of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, and more than 90% of the collection postdates 1970.
Original field notes, collectors' catalogs, and frozen tissues supplement the collection; all specimen data have been computerized. The bird and mammal records can be
queried via Arctos, a searchable online database.
![USGS images](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090116054811im_/http://www.msb.unm.edu/USGS/images/collage_top_Cindy.jpg) Cassin's finches © 2006 E.W.Valdez, MSB bird and mammal collection and tray of Myotis volans © 2006 C.A.Ramotnik
![USGS images](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090116054811im_/http://www.msb.unm.edu/USGS/images/Collage_bottom_Cindy.jpg) MSB wet collection © 2006 P.Stevens, Xyrauchen texanus © 2003 H.W.Brandenburg, jar of lizards © 2006 P.Stevens
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