SAIAB is the custodian of the National Fish Collection of South Africa. The collection consists of about 80 000 lots of fish specimens (containing at least 650 000 individual fish specimens) from southern Africa and surrounding oceans, and from elsewhere in the world. It is the world’s largest collection of southern African fishes.
As well as adult and larval specimens preserved in propanol and ethanol (the vast majority), the collection and associated material consists of preparations of genetic material, cleared and stained preparations, dry skins and skeletons, otoliths, X-rays, photographs, drawings and paintings of fishes.
About 7500 species in about 400 families are represented in the collection.
Search the National Fish Collection
Record data -- Images -- Maps
Diversifying the natural history collection has been an on-going focus of curation at SAIAB for some years. Specifically, the recently established amphibian collection has been developing steadily. The collection comprises amphibian specimens, tissues, photographs, x-rays, recordings of calls and literature. These different collection objects are at varying stages of development: the specimen, tissue and literature collections are the most advanced.
As this is a new collection, and by no means the most comprehensive for southern Africa, our aim is to achieve high quality collection resources and to provide facilities to examine these. Read more
Search the Amphibian Collection
Record data -- Images -- Maps
Link to the Eddie van Dijk Collection page at the Margaret Smith Library
for bibliographies and codes.