Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability

The Academy Library serves the research and educational needs of all Academy staff, docents, volunteers, members, educators and students, and the community at large. Our mission is to facilitate access to scientific information and Academy history.

The CCG CryoCollection is a collection of frozen, genomic DNA extracted by CAS researchers working in the lab.

The collections include alcohol preserved specimens, skeletal preparations, cleared & stained specimens, and radiographs.

Our searchable online database features the entire Anthropology collection, with nearly 16,000 objects, all of which include digital images.

The collection of the California Academy of Sciences is one of the four largest entomology collections in North America. It contains about 10,000,000 curated specimens, representing all orders, nearly all families, and approximately 250,000 species of insects, myriapods, and arachnids.

IZG maintains four major collections: Recent invertebrates, fossils (invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants), diatoms (fossil and Recent), and minerals.

 Quick tips on how to search the collections database:

 1. Our collections database is not case sensitive

 2. Use either an "*" or "%" as a wilcard

Our collection of amphibians and reptiles is one of the ten largest in the world, containing more than 300,000 catalogued specimens from 166 countries.

The search forms provide access to the three primary collection databases of the Department of Ornithology & Mammalogy.  These databases describe specimens in the Mammal, Bird, and Egg & Nest collections.  The query forms in each database enables records to be retrieved using various fields (e.g. Genus, Country, Year, etc.).  A maximum of 1,000 records can be retrieved at one time.  Entering search criteria into more than one field can help keep result sets under the 1,000-record limit.

Currently cataloged in our collection database are 96,000 bird specimens, 28,500 mammal specimens, and 11,000 egg and nest specimens.  As our computerization continues, more specimens will be added to our on-line database through periodic updates.  Additionally, we are actively georeferencing many of our localities.