Ichthyology

Fishes (Pisces) represent with more than 33.000 described species the largest vertebrate group. Many species still await their formal scientific description, more than 300 new species are described annually. The overall species richness of fishes is estimated at approximately 40.000.

In the ichthyological department we collect and maintain collections of preserved fish specimens from all continents and seas. The focus of the collection is on Bavarian fishes, on West- and Central African freshwater fishes, and on fishes from so called “species-flocks”, i.e. species-rich groups of closely related species from restricted geographical regions. Further the collection holds significant amounts of South American freshwater fishes and marine fishes of the deep sea.

Scientific research at the ichthyological collection of the ZSM focuses on the assessment, systematics and biogeographic research of Bavarian fishes, and on the assessment, description and evolutionary biology of African and Indonesian freshwater fishes. We work both with classical methods (description and analysis of morphological characters) as well as with molecular methods (DNA-analysis).

Literature

Neumann, D. 2006. Type Catalogue of the Ichthyological Collection of the Zoologische Staatssammlung München. Part I: Historic type material from the “Old Collection”, destroyed in the night 24/25 April 1944. Spixiana 29 (3): 259-285

Neumann, D. 2011. Type Catalogue of the Ichthyological Collection of the Zoologische Staatssammlung München. Part II: Fish types inventoried after 25 April 1944. Spixiana 34 (2): 231-286.