The Invertebrate Collections

Since 2005, our strategy has been to build a new, active, and growing collection of marine invertebrates preserved in ethanol and available for modern taxonomical research. The museum coordinates genetic barcoding of marine organisms found in Norway through participating in various national and international initiatives such as NorBOL – Norwegian Barcode of Life (external link) and BGE + – Biodiversity Genome Europe Plus (external link). The Collection plays an important role in storing voucher specimens and curating the reference sequences for marine invertebrates in the Barcode of Life Data Systems (external link).

The collection dates back to the early times of the Museum during the 19^th century and contains mostly marine species. It holds material from historically important expeditions such as the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition (1876–78) and the Michael Sars Expedition (1910), which revolutionized the technology for exploring marine fauna, resulting in the description of hundreds of species; material from the Appelløf's surveys of the fjords around Bergen (ca. 1890-1900), and the "Fjord surveys" in Hardanger in the 1960s

More recently, the collection experienced considerably growth with the acquisition of several thousand lots mostly benefiting from collaborative work with programmes such as MAR-ECO (external link) focused on the Mid-Atlantic ridge between the Azores and Iceland, MIWA (external link) – Marine Invertebrates from West Africa between Morocco and Angola, MAREANO (external link) focused on the Norwegian coast, multiple projects funded by the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (external link), and BioTropic – Biodiversity of marine tropical regions. An additional important source of specimens results from collaborations with private companies working in biomonitoring. More information about a selection of the material can be found here (in Norwegian).