DAMON LOWE
Curator of Biology
Collection highlights
The Biology collection of the Indiana State Museum consists of approximately 47,000 specimens and is organized into several sections including: herpetology, ornithology, mammalogy, ichthyology, invertebrates and botany. The collection strategy is to assemble a representative collection of taxa that are indigenous to or naturalized in Indiana.
A skeletal reference collection of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals serves as a tool to facilitate the identification of vertebrate materials in both Quaternary and archaeological contexts. A mussel collection of 4,500 specimens includes extinct and endangered taxa. The mounted bird collection includes the extinct Passenger Pigeon and several early county records of Indiana birds. Active growth in the vertebrate and mollusks collection is a reflection of pursuing the goal of developing comprehensive regional collections.