Naturalis' fish collection consists of about 200,000 recorded objects but contains many times more specimens. This collection contains a large number (more than 5,000) of type specimens, especially from Bleeker, Weber, Von Siebold, Nijssen and Insbrücker and in the Cichlids and Barbiles collection. Geographically, the collection focuses on the Netherlands, Europe, South East Asia, especially Indonesia and Japan, Africa, especially Ethiopia and Tanzania, and Suriname. The collection consists of the former RMNH collection and the former ZMA collection and is still frequently visited by scientists from all over the world.
Highlights
The fish collection contains many special sub-collections and centerpieces such as, for example, the Bleeker collection from Indonesia, with many type specimens. The collection of Japanese fishes by Philipp von Siebold (this collection also includes drawings by Kawara Keiga). Japanese scientists in particular are still discovering new species in this collection. Famous evolutionary biological collections are collection of cichlids from Lake Victoria (with more than 20,000 specimens), and of the barbels from Lake Tana. Biologist Max Weber was director of the Zoological Museum Amsterdam at the turn of the last century, and collected more than 2,000 species of fish during the Siboga Expedition. Also from the ZMA is the Nijssen/Isbrücker collection, from South America.
Centerpieces
Naturalis has an extensive collection of shark and ray eggs. This has been used, among other things, for the Automatic Image Recognition as a Tool for Museum Collections project. In the collection we have about 300 deep-sea fish caught during the annual Blue Whiting Survey. The Mola tecta from the LiveScience room is one of only two specimens ever found in the Northern Hemisphere. Naturalis also owns a specimen of the famous Coelacanth.
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